Bolton at Home: Talks aim to avert energy bills hike

It comes asBolton at Home, the borough’s largest housing provider, consults tenants about plans to raise bills for communal boilers from around £60 per month to around £340 per month.

In response, Bolton Labour group leader Cllr Nick Peel and Cllr Martin Donaghy, who both represent Tonge with the Haulgh, have held talks with the group’s senior managers.

Cllr Peel said: “We had very productive talks that centred around several areas, including the re purposing of communal heating systems so that tenants may instead pay their heating bills in the same way as everyone else.

“We also discussed the possibility of Bolton at Home making a much lesser rise, by taking on a temporary deficit, in the knowledge that bills are predicted to drop again in future years.

The delegation was led by Cllr Nick Peel (Image: Bolton Council)

“Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we wanted assurances that people would not face the loss of their homes if they were unable to pay the heating element of their overall service charge.”

He added: “The national energy crisis, and governments inability to resolve it, is affecting us all, including Bolton at Home, so it is not their fault this has happened. 

“I am, however, very hopeful that they will make changes to the proposals and do all that they can in order to lessen the impact.”

Around 1,000 Bolton at Home households pay service charges for communal boilers, including around 600 sheltered housing customers, 300 general let households and 60 leaseholders. 

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Donaghy said he was deeply concerned about the effects the price rises would have on some of Bolton’s most vulnerable tenants.

He said: “At the last Council meeting, I asked the Conservative council how they intended to work with Bolton at Home to try to avoid these eye watering price rises, and was far from happy with the non-answer I received.

“Therefore, even though Labour does not at present run the council, we felt it was our duty to step in.”

He added: “If the cost was to rise to £340 per month, this would be considerably higher than the bills paid by almost everyone else, including other tenants who are not on communal heating schemes.

“It therefore calls into question what benefit the scheme actually brings anymore.”

But Bolton at Home managers have previously said that it is not sustainable to for the group to continue with bills at the current rate given the rising costs of energy all over the country.

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Despite this they still hope to help keep costs to a minimum.

Executive director of finance Edward Mellor said: “We welcomed the opportunity to meet with elected members and explain the reasons these heating service charges are increasing and also how we’re working with affected customers to keep the increases as manageable as possible.

“We’ll have a clearer picture in the coming weeks how much these charges will increase by and will keep our customers fully informed.”