Flintshire tenants facing increase in communal heating costs

People living in communally heated social housing in Flintshire could see energy costs increase from August despite wholesale gas prices falling by 15%.

Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet will consider proposals to increase the weekly cost on Tuesday to ensure full cost recovery from communally heated properties at Bolingbroke Heights, Richard Heights and Castle Heights in Flint, Llwyn Bueno in Holywell, Acacia Close in Mold, Panton Place in Bagillt and Glan y Morfa Court and Chapel Court in Connah’s Quay.

If approved, weekly costs for those schemes still on communal billing will rise between £1.15 and £2.52 per week. Only two schemes will see a reduction in weekly cost – one block of Glan-y-Morfa Court which will see the weekly cost reduce by 35p and Chapel Court, which will see costs fall by £2.60 a week.

That means a resident in a two-bedroom property in Bolingbroke Heights or Richard Heights in Flint will pay an additional £131.04 for the year, while a Chapel Court resident will see their bill fall by £135.20 in the same period.

The proposed increase is due to the authority paying up-front for gas from its heating reserve fund. It then bills residents each week at a flat rate to recover that money. Changes to fees are introduced each August, after the final billing is received from the previous financial year.

Communal heating – sometimes known as a heat network or district heating – sees properties heated from a single central source instead of each having their own boiler. Heat is distributed through a network of pipes, to each home.

Residents on such schemes may soon find themselves paying for their own individual heating bills. The authority is currently installing individual heat meters in all communally heated properties – with work expected to be complete by October this year.

It hopes to transition over the next 12 months to individual billing. Trials operating at communal heating sites at Panton Place and one block of Glan-Y-Morfa Court have shown that residents do not experience significant increases in bills when moving over to individual billing.

“We have a team who are ready to offer support to anyone who begins to see significant increases in their heating bills,” said Flintshire’s Chief Officer for Housing and Communities Vicky Clark at this week’s Community and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

“During the trials we have identified a small number of residents, two or three, who have experienced significant increases. We have not been charging people for individual use during the trial and have been able to give them support so that when they do go onto individual billing, they are not hit with a really high price.”

By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter