Camden New Journal - by SARA NEWMAN Published: 27 September 2007
The Brunswick Centre has benefited from council-funded maintenance
‘Heating bills are a bit rich,’ say pensioners
PENSIONERS stung by fees topping £20,000 in leaseholders’ charges for new heating and windows have claimed it would be cheaper if they did the job themselves.
The bills have been handed down to residents on the Brunswick estate in Bloomsbury, the rows of flats above the recently refurbished shopping arcade.
Many feel they are paying over the odds because the council keeps putting up and taking down scaffolding for different jobs.
Each leaseholder has been billed £10,000 for the heating and £10,000 for the windows and, according the terms of their contract when they bought their home, they are required to contribute a proportion of the costs.
Stuart Tappin, chairman of the Brunswick Residents Estate, claims that if leaseholders sought to pay for their own individual heating systems it would be three of four times cheaper than the suggested plans to run new pipe works through the building.
He said: “Those who are retired or on pensions are facing very big bills. There’s a feeling that after all the work that was done to the shopping centre there has been no acknowledgement of the weeks of disruption we have had to put up with. It would be a shame if the leaseholders could only pay for the bills by selling their flats.”
Kenneth Mackenzie, a designer who leases his studio from the council, said: “This place is a conundrum of ironies. There’s a juxtaposition of rich business downstairs and independent business and residents upstairs. It does seem like they make it beautiful downstairs and don’t bother with us.”
The centre, designed by architect Patrick Hodgkinson, failed to attract sufficient private buyers in the 1960s. Camden Council responded by buying a 115-year lease on the residential section in 1982 for nearly £850,000.
Currently, 70 of the 380 properties within the Brunswick Centre are leased out to private residents.
Mr Tappin said: “It is because of the split ownership that there have been three loads of scaffolding.”
Ten per cent of the council’s contribution to the previous freeholders, Allied London, for the 2005 refurbishment was put into The Environmental Improvement Fund (EIF), which was set up as compensation for the disruption caused to Brunswick residents.
Residents are calling for the fund, an estimated £250,000, to be used to paint the internal areas and contribute to the bills.
But Michael Ingall, chief executive of Allied London, said there was no possibility of using the EIF to help leaseholders with the bills. He said: “The Improvement Fund is there for the running repairs for the communal areas.”
A council press official said: “It is made clear to all leaseholders upon them signing a lease or purchasing a property as a leaseholder that they are required to contribute to a proportion of works which are carried out to their block or estate as per the terms of their lease. Residents who are unable to pay for works do have the option of paying in instalments.”
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