Yeah. But, again by having a set charge spread over the whole year it’s a lot easier for people on low incomes to budget for that. In the summer the charges would be low but in winter they would be high but your income remains the same. Yeah that definitely makes sense.
6. Obviously you haven’t had any changes recently, but if the heating contract did change, would the consumer any way of protesting that or are they just locked into the system?
At the moment, they’re locked into that system. It’s effectively the only way of getting heat into the property. In the past, one or two people did disconnect from the system. Former occupants disconnected and then installed their own gas system. Oh ok so they have to install a gas system for the hot water and the heating, everything? Yes. The problem now is that the estate is listed so you can’t alter the external appearance I was going to say, how did they get gas in?
Well most of the properties have got a gas supply but probably the only thing they use is a gas cooker. And to be honest, where possible, we’ve been taking it out. Yeah because obviously it’s a fire hazard.
It’s a fire hazard, it’s a maintenance nightmare, has to be serviced every year and all its being used for is cooking. Its really doesn’t justify having the supply in there. So we take them out. So really, this is the means of heating within Byker. And everyone seems to quite like it
There aren’t any real viable alternatives to that
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