Leroy Keiler with a fan heater at Rowley Way

RESIDENTS of two estates in Camden have been without heating for more than a month, causing tenants to bemoan frustrations with communal heating systems.

A block of homes in the Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate in Swiss Cottage, also known as Rowley Way, and Weedington Road, Gospel Oak, have not had heating for more than five weeks with “no communication” from the council nor its contractors Gem Environmental Building Services. The estates both run on communal heating that is distributed through the walls.

Leroy Keiler, 57, lives in Rowley Way with his mum. His block, which he has lived in for 40 years, contains around 30 flats that have been without central heating because asbestos was thought to have been found in the pipes.

Contractors Gem have handed out small fan heaters to residents, which are “expensive to run”.

“My mum is retired, most of the people here are retired and don’t have lots of money so now they’re going to fall into fuel poverty,” said Mr Keiler. “They need to keep themselves warm but they can’t afford to put those expensive heaters on. I’ve rang Gem five times. Nobody has sent out any sort of notification about what’s happening and when it will be fixed.

“What gets me is how can you be giving people who are struggling financially anyway fan heaters to heat up the building during a cost of living crisis and you’re not even giving them an update.”

Tom Muirhead, Rowley Way resident and member of their Tenants Residents’ Association, has had intermittent hot water for the past two weeks. He agreed that the communication for the all-to-often heating outages was poor.

He added the fan heaters “don’t do anything at all” to heat rooms. “I’ve had people in and out repeatedly and they go away and they don’t say anything. They don’t confirm that the job has been done or anything but you find that you still haven’t got hot water,” Mr Muirhead told the New Journal.

The Grade II-listed estate, renowned for its pioneering brutalist architecture, has been popular as a film set. Kingsman: The Secret Service and Breaking and Entering had scenes shot on the estate, as well as episodes of Silent Witness.

Mr Keiler wondered why the income generated from authorised filming can’t be used to fix their ailing heating system.  “Where does the money go?”, said Mr Keiler. “There’s lots of filming that has inconvenienced residents here. People can’t park their cars because all the film trucks are in the car park.”

The Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate

A block of about 12 flats in Weedington Road has also been without heating since October 25.

Resident Anne-Marie Durberry, 58, who lives with her 22-year-old daughter said: “We were told it would only be a few days. It’s been nearly a month and we haven’t heard anything.

“The heater is very expensive. I’m on a key meter. I haven’t turned it on at all. On Friday I actually bought a calor gas heater which is cheaper.

“The way our flats are built it’s literally wall to wall windows front and back so it’s extremely cold.”

On the communal heating system she said: “When it works, it works. But if there’s an issue the whole block or the whole section gets affected. The heat’s always going off but it’s never happened for this length of time.”

Ms Durberry was told by a friend that tenants are entitled to financial compensation, so she has been putting up notices on their building’s noticeboard. But she thinks the council should be informing residents about this, not her.

A Camden Council spokesperson said it was writing to residents on both estates providing heating rebates and full reimbursement for cost of running temporary heaters they provided. The council is currently investing £7million on an upgrade at Weedington and work will begin early next year. A £14m investment at Rowley Way next year will make homes energy efficient and reliable, said the council Gem said enquiries should go to the council.

Camden Council produced a very long response to this story which arrived on Wednesday evening. We publish it in full below: