I don't know if anyone saw Rip Off Britain this morning. The programme was mainly about a Swedish eco heating system that has been installed in a number of housing association estates across the UK. Several of the people living in these houses had been told that their heating bills could be as low as around £500 a year. In fact, some had received bills for over £1,000 for only a few months.
The company disputes that their product is faulty and says that the systems have been incorrectly installed or "misused" (whatever that means).
It was upsetting to see people, many with young childre and on limited incomes, close to breaking point because they couldn't afford to heat their homes. Some housing associations have said they will replace the systems and try and recover the money through legal action.
It made me wonder who is responsible for purchasing these products and whether they carry out proper research.
Out of interest, I did a search on the internet to see if there was anything else about this. There were several entries, including an article in the Daily Mail highlighting these problems over a year ago - and some of these housing association tenants have had to put up this situation for over three years. Presumably if the media hadn't become involved these tenants would still be being fobbed off and seeing no action taken.