Islington council - free boiler replacement

kittygal

Just got a flyer from the council offering free boiler replacement - too good to be true?

miss annie

It's all true. All three flats in our house had boilers and radiators replaced in March as part of this scheme. Replaced old inefficient kit with combi boiler and sparkling new rads. Brilliant and completely free. I'd urge anyone that needs a new boiler to bite the Council's hand off for this!

Brodiej

<P>Yes this scheme does exist, but you have to have a fairly old/ennergy inefficient boiler in order to qualify. I think has to be D rated or worse.</P> <P>I'm 50/50 for/against this. I think people with knackered old boilers who suffer in the winter will really benefit from the scheme, especially since landlords are very unlikely to invest £2-3k in rectifying the issues. They will now have lower bills and won't worry about when it next goes on the blink.</P> <P>There lies my problem, it appears that the government (or tax payer) is picking up the slack of landlords who just aren't keeping their properties in good order.</P> <P>It's not means tested either. The council guy that came round our house cited an example of a lovely georgian terrace in the borough worth approx £2m, privately owned, qualified for the scheme and was so large that it cost over £20k for boiler and radiators. All legit and covered by the scheme. </P> <P>Remember that when you see notices about reductions in council services. £20k on your cash went on pimping out a millionaires house with some new rads.</P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

miss annie

Our house was freezing in the winter, lukewarm water too. Landlady is ancient and was never going to do a anything about it. I'm completely thrilled with the new boiler. The chaps who cams to ours said that not many landlords are taking up the offer for their flats. Our landlady had to be pestered to fill out forms as 'she didn't want the council snooping around'.

ADGS

I don't entirely blame her, when they've come round here in the past (HMO inspection) there have been complaints about things like having doors open, having wardrobe doors open, and the large amount of 'flammable material' (or as I prefer to call it, 'books'). Different departments, though, and the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing.

boxrunner

We've just had our boiler replaced under this scheme.  It's not means-tested because it's open to all borough residents (Islington is the only borough offer this scheme).<br><br>As well as helping residents get their gas payments down, it helps the borough reduce CO2 emissions, which Islington wants to do, irrespective of how much you earn.<br>

Detritus

From my understanding it is nothing to do with the government, when they came to do the initial inspection i asked and apparently the EU gave a vast chunk of cash specifically for things like this. That could be totally wrong but a Islington council bod told me. I guess it is run via the council so a private company don't take a cut of the money.

boxrunner

The council person who came round to ours told me it was an Islington initiative (hence why they're the only borough doing this).  I'm not sure where the money's coming from.<br><br>