Taking umbrage

We received the following email from a resident of the Cremorne Estate that voices his concerns with RBK&C's plan to replace the estate's communal heating and hot water system. 

The majority of the estate's residents oppose the Council's plans.

The email contains nothing that a genuinely reasonable person could disagree with. 

Dear Housing Management Team,

We acknowledge receipt of your July 2026 leaflet regarding the proposed heating and refurbishment works to our estate and the appointment of Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) as consultants for the next phase of the project.

We appreciate that maintaining and improving council housing is an important responsibility, and we recognise that investment in our homes can bring benefits where there is a clearly demonstrated need. Improvements to roofs, windows, balconies and brickwork may well be appropriate where supported by proper inspection and evidence.

However, we are deeply concerned by the statement that the existing heating system “must be fully replaced to prevent further failures and inconsistent heat and hot water distribution.” This is presented as an established fact, yet residents have not been provided with the technical evidence, engineering assessments or independent reports that demonstrate such a conclusion.

Over a considerable period, residents have repeatedly requested objective evidence to justify the replacement of the existing heating system. To date, no comprehensive information has been made available that explains:

• the nature and extent of the alleged failures;
• the engineering evidence showing that replacement, rather than repair or targeted upgrading, is necessary;
• alternative options that have been considered and why they have been rejected;
• the expected lifespan of the existing system if appropriately maintained;
• the projected operating and maintenance costs of the proposed replacement system; and
• the likely financial impact on residents’ future heating and hot water bills.

Without this information, residents are being asked to engage with a project whose most significant component has already been described as something that “must” happen, despite the absence of publicly available evidence supporting that conclusion.

Many residents are particularly concerned that the proposed replacement may significantly increase the cost of heating and hot water. At a time when many households continue to experience financial hardship and high energy costs, any proposal that could substantially increase ongoing household expenses requires careful scrutiny.

For many residents, especially pensioners, disabled people, low-income households and other vulnerable members of our community, affordability is not a secondary consideration—it is fundamental. A heating system that is technically modern but financially unaffordable cannot reasonably be described as an improvement for those who are expected to live with its long-term consequences.

Residents are therefore seeking meaningful consultation based on transparency rather than assumptions. Effective consultation requires that residents are provided with sufficient information to understand the proposals, assess their implications and express informed views before decisions are finalised.

Accordingly, we respectfully request that the Council and its consultants provide residents with:

1. The independent condition surveys and engineering reports supporting the proposed replacement of the heating system.
2. The evidence demonstrating why full replacement is considered necessary instead of repair or refurbishment.
3. Details of all heating technologies currently under consideration.
4. Independent modelling comparing current and projected annual heating and hot water costs for residents under each proposed option.
5. Information regarding the anticipated environmental performance, reliability, maintenance arrangements and expected lifespan of the proposed system.
6. A full equality and affordability impact assessment, particularly addressing the effects on vulnerable and low-income residents.
7. A genuine opportunity for residents to comment on the available options before any scope of works is finalised.

We wish to emphasise that our concerns should not be interpreted as opposition to investment or improvements in principle. Rather, we believe that any major alteration to essential services should be supported by robust evidence, transparent decision-making and meaningful consultation with those who will ultimately bear both the practical and financial consequences.

We hope the Council will recognise that residents are seeking reassurance through openness and accountability. Providing the evidence underpinning the proposed works would help build confidence, encourage constructive engagement and ensure that any final decisions are demonstrably in the best interests of all residents.

We look forward to receiving the requested information and to participating in a consultation process that is informed, transparent and genuinely collaborative.

Yours faithfully,

On behalf of the residents

Seven months later ...

It has been over seven months since the last public meeting chaired by Ben Coleman MP.

We've been quietly waiting to see what would happen before passing comment. But now the time for comment is well and duly overdue. Let us begin ... 

Just over a year ago we started telling everyone about the Council’s plans for the estate’s communal heating and hot water system. 

We explained what the Council had planned and what the consequences of those plans would be - extremely disruptive works in our homes, so disruptive that some residents might have to be decanted, increased heating and hot water charges for the vast majority, massive major works bills for the estate’s leaseholders. 

Some accused us of being alarmist but the simple fact of the matter is that every single one of those predictions has yet to be proved wrong. 

Should the works proceed we are all still facing extremely disruptive works in our homes, decants, and increased heating and hot water charges. Leaseholders are still facing massive major works bills. For works no one has been able to justify. 

Ben Coleman, our local MP, held a meeting in Ashburnham Primary school on the 8th of May 2025. The meeting was intended to allow residents to bring their concerns with the proposals to the attention of the Council, and for the Council to explain its plans to the residents. 

Doug Goldring, the former Director of Housing Management was in attendance. Doug promised to address all of the issues and concerns highlighted by residents and to provide all of the information they asked for. 

Unfortunately Doug announced his departure from the Council a few days later and the Council officers left behind have shown very little interest in keeping Doug's promises. 

The end result is that most of the information and documentation the Council promised to provide last May is still outstanding. And most of what it did provide was quite simply not as described or up to the job.

The business case in particular, which supposedly contained a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed works, contained nothing of the sort. There has been no cost-benefit analysis.

Ben Coleman MP held a second meeting in Ashburnham Primary school on the 24th of September 2025. This second meeting was intended to enable the the Council to report back on its progress and to answer any further questions the residents might have. 

We were there. It became very clear very quickly that the Council had yet to provide much of the information promised at the previous meeting.

And the information it had provided, such as the infamous business case, was sorely lacking.

A so-called condition report that the Council's consultants had prepared over the summer was particularly poor. It contained no meaningful evidence as to the condition of the existing communal heating and hot water system. Its analysis of any data was superficial and slip-shod.

And the report's page count had clearly been bolstered by the inclusion of a great deal of barely relevant content from uncredited sources (are the Council paying for this stuff by the page?).

Which does raise the obvious question: does anyone at the Council ever read, let alone scrutinize, any of these reports they're spending so much of (our) public money on?

The result of all this was exactly what you’d expect. It was not a good meeting. 

There were few Council officers present. Those who were present did not appear to like being challenged by the residents. And neither did the Council's consultants, particularly when anyone had the temerity to point out the rather obvious deficiencies in what they were proposing. 

Despite this the Council officers present did agree to provide residents with more information and more documents. Information about heat consumption and tariffs and likely heating and hot water costs and all the major works they expect the leaseholders to pay for.

A month ago, six months after that meeting, we checked in with the residents who did such a good job of challenging the Council and its consultants at that meeting and they confirmed that the Council has yet to provide anything. 

That's right. They had provided no new documents, no new reports, no new information. Nothing of what they had promised. 

No reports. No information. Absolutely zero. Nada. Zilch. 

And, as far as anyone knows, the Council are proceeding with their plans for the estate’s communal heating and hot water system regardless. We’ve seen nothing to suggest otherwise and have every reason to believe that remains the case.

Is this what we should expect from the Council?

Does this sound like a Council who consults with and listens to residents?

Does it sound like a Council who has learnt anything from what we all know happened during the Grenfell Tower refurbishment, when gaslighting the residents was the norm?

We'll let you decide.