No help for homes hit by huge energy bill hike

Homeowners on the Byker Estate have seen their energy bills double

People living on a housing estate where energy bills have soared to more than £200 per month have been told their local council will not step in to lower costs.

Homeowners on the Byker Estate have complained they are being charged "ridiculous" amounts by Newcastle City Council to use the area's district heat network.

Residents are charged a flat fee for power generated from the station on Walker Road, but the system is not covered by the Energy Price Cap and the council said it will not use public funds to subsidise residents.

Pensioner Roberta Davidson, whose monthly bill jumped from £108 to £213 in December, said the council's response was "not solving the problem".

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "It is not answering the question of why we are paying double.

"We are no further forward."

'No blanket assurances'

Newcastle City Council's director of housing and communities Vicky McDermott said in a letter to Ms Davidson that the local authority "does not benefit financially from any income received from heat network customers, and that our charging only reflects the costs of providing energy to you all".

Ms McDermott added bills are expected to fall in the next financial year "in line with declining gas prices".

But Labour councillor Paula Maines said the authority, run by a minority Labour administration, was not willing to make any promises about reducing bills.

In a separate letter to Byker councillor Nick Hartley, she said: "We are unable to issue blanket assurances about costs going down – gas prices are falling now, but we do not know if this will change, and we are also expecting increased compliance and regulatory oversight from Ofgem.

"We will not give promises we cannot necessarily keep, and we cannot, as a council, expect our council taxpayers to subsidise Byker heating bills."