City centre residents 'freezing or homeless' after energy bills TRIPLE -and they can't switch
| Published date | 10 January 2022 |
| Publication title | Manchester Evening News: Web Edition Articles (England) |
The new supplier, Pozitive Energy, was appointed by the regulator OfGem.
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However, when bills arrived in December, just days before Christmas, residents were being asked to pay triple, or even quadruple, previous amounts.
One bill went from £56.29 in August 2021 to £152.63 in December, another soared from £42.02 to £215.29 and another from £66.70 to £260.56.
The letters have sparked uproar in the building where there is a mixture of renters and owner-occupiers.
Jeff Swales, 35, said: "I don't think they appreciate the effect that letter has had just before Christmas -it was devastating.
"There was one woman who's got a £300 bill, she was sat in the lobby in tears saying 'I don't know how I'm going to pay'.
"I took out a payday loan to cover it and now I'm moving out.
"I'm going to sleep on a friend's sofa."
Jeff, an IT professional, is one of a number of tenants who moved into CHIPS on a Rent to Buy scheme with Plumlife, the affordable homes arm of Great Places Housing Group.
It means eligible renters pay 80pc of market rate so they can save 20pc towards a future deposit.
But in the CHIPS building, tenants say the energy price hike means it no longer makes financial sense.
Luke Ives, 30, who is also on the Rent to Buy scheme, said: "That 20 per cent isn't going towards a mortgage, it's going towards energy bills.
"People are leaving because it's unaffordable."
In the meantime, residents have told of being too scared to turn on the heating or even have hot showers.
"I've got a plug in oil heater," said Luke, who works in engineering.
"I don't want a £300 bill.
"If it's cold we just put extra layers on."
Adam Labatt, 34, another Rent to Buy tenant, added: "This winter I'm just not using it [the heating].
"It's absolutely freezing, a lot of us work from home all the time but we're scared to put the heating on.
"Part of living here was to save -especially as a single person -so that I could get my own property, that's what attracted me.
"I can't do that when I've got these bills.
"I'm cutting back on other things -it might be deciding not to go out or not doing a big food shop."
Trying to get answers over what has happened at CHIPS has proved complex because tenants are dealing with multiply parties including Urban Splash, the property management company...
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