Council delays lending to tenants after increasing energy bills by 350%.

A council which hiked heating bills by 350% has delayed the transfer of a £1MILLION grant fund to tenants. Lambeth Council, which has raised bills for more than 3,000 district heating tenants, has delayed crediting them for over a year.

The council threatened tenants with eviction if they did not afford a 350% increase in their energy bills. It faces demands to pay compensation to residents who campaigners say have been forced into poverty by appeals from the capital.

The Labor Authority increased the energy bills of more than 3,000 tenants by up to 350% in April last year. “Lambeth Council is wrongly and blatantly treating the fuel debt as unpaid rent,” said Kirsty Oliviera. “I got a search warrant last September and a letter in January saying Lambeth were thinking of taking me to court.

READ MORE Met Office issues verdict on when heatwaves will hit UK in June and July

“Since then I have received several letters telling me that I am in arrears with my rent. I pay my rent, I just can’t pay the full heating and hot water bills. Lambeth should have considered reducing government before they started threatening. US”

The London Tenants Federation and Fuel Poverty Action said: “We’ve known for over a year tenants have been missing meals and going into debt, yet the council chose to ignore the fact that they were due a large sum from the government. .

“To our knowledge, eviction for energy bill debt has never been tested in a court of law.” A council spokesman said: “Although heating and hot water charges are service charges, they are included as part of the weekly rent payable.

“The council has a financial responsibility to recover rent and service charges in accordance with the leases, which means we need to put the arrears recovery process in place. We have not evicted any resident who has fallen into arrears due to energy charges”.

Residents in one property have been told their annual heating and hot water bill is rising from £959 to £4,344.