The Alexandra & Ainsworth estate, also known as Rowley Way [Oxyman, CC By 2.5, Detail] 

• ED Miliband, the new energy secretary, might summarise the government’s Warm Homes Plan as “insulation, insulation, insulation”, a programme to retrofit 19 million UK homes, with £60billion allocated.

Unfortunately, Camden’s heating engineers seem determined to ignore Miliband. They frequently remind us residents of the Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate that we have the highest heating costs of any estate in Camden; but that’s due to the council’s own mismanagement.

They deliberately overheat our homes, forcing us to keep windows open even in winter to escape the tropical levels of heat, an outrageous waste of energy.

Despite repeated requests to lower temperatures, our pleas are ignored, leaving us to speculate as to why Camden are doing it.

Their proposed solution to reduce heating costs – an issue they created – is to install a new heating system that threatens the integrity of our Grade II* – listed estate while ignoring the real problem: their mismanagement.

If our current system has the highest running costs in Camden, it is their mismanagement that is to blame and a new system would not resolve their inefficiencies.

Shockingly, their new plan includes no insulation, directly disregarding the warm homes policy. This means heat would escape through our walls and floors for decades, worsening the problem.

The only insulation measure implemented – after residents demanded it – is double-glazing, while our other suggestions for additional insulation which would not compromise the estate’s integrity have been rejected.

Their proposed new system would continue to waste as much heat as the current one. Even worse, they plan to shift the financial burden on to residents through a discriminatory billing method.

Individual heat metering would pass the cost of wasted heat on to us without taking into account the different levels of heat wasted by various flat types.

Given Camden’s mismanagement and their refusal to prioritise insulation, we urge the council to reject this flawed application and pursue a solution that is not in conflict with government policy.

TOM MUIRHEAD, NW8