Residents angry at 300% hike in gas bills at Sovereign Housing property in Newbury

SOVEREIGN Housing has said it will look into the way it sets gas charges after tenants living in a block of flats in Greenham were hit by an almost 300 per cent hike in their bills.

Residents at Springhurst House, which is located in The Nightingales estate, claim the housing provider miscalculated a bill from Octopus Energy – the company which supplies gas to the properties – and is now making them pay for the error.

Sovereign said it was "sorry for the concern expressed by residents" and acknowledged that the current system for setting bills was "imperfect".

Alan Brown, one of the 35 residents who have been affected, said: “Sovereign have acknowledged that they made a mistake, but they are still passing on the extra cost to their tenants so we are the ones paying for that mistake.

“They just said 'oops we paid the wrong bill', then suddenly our payments shot up from £3.45 a week to £12.57 a week.

“I just think to give us back credit and then hit us with an increase isn’t on.

“A number of us have made formal complaints to Sovereign. I don’t know what can be done.

“I’m hoping they can reimburse us with the money that we shouldn’t be paying, but to be honest I think the chances of that happening are slim.

“It is like taking your car to the garage to get serviced and when you come to pay they say ‘oh by the way you owe us for the work we forgot to charge you for two years ago’.

“Trying to get a resolution is like hitting your head against a brick wall. There is very little explanation."

Mr Brown said Sovereign recalculated the bills and is now charging tenants £7.75 a week but feels "even the corrected amount in my view is double what it should be".

He added: “Sovereign are not helping tenants by getting the best possible deal. I feel they are not providing a duty of care or the best service they possibly can.

“This is not just about me – it is 35 tenants who are not happy and about half of them have complained to Sovereign.

“There are people here on benefits and that extra £10 a week is a lot of money to find.”

Sovereign head of financial services Karen Leach said: “We’re sorry for the concern expressed by customers at Springhurst House over the recent rise in their gas charges.

"Our customers’ bills are estimated on a yearly basis, where their bills are set against the previous year’s estimated usage.

"At the end of the year, these costs are checked to see if they were the same as the usage.

"This can result in a decrease in payments, or sometimes an increase, but does ensure that only the actual costs incurred are paid.

“We recognise that this is an imperfect system and we are investigating changing the way we set gas charges.

"We would urge any residents who are struggling to pay their bills to contact us on 0300 5000 926 to discuss the ways that we can support them.”