Bristol tenants not 'scamming' council

Your article rightly points out that Bristol Council will be replacing the Clorius heating and hot water metering system where this exists in council high and low-rise blocks at a cost of £3 million. However, this system is employed in 49 blocks of flats, not all of our blocks, as your article states. The council has a total of 50 high-rise and 530 low-rise blocks.

More importantly the article is entirely wrong in asserting that the reason for the overhaul is because residents are ‘scamming’ the council by tampering with the meters. As we made clear, the reason we have decided to install a new metering system is that the current one is old and no longer fit for purpose.

The new system will provide more accurate and therefore fairer individual bills for residents and deliver maintenance and energy-efficiency savings.

While the council has heard rumours that some individuals may be attempting to tamper with the meters in the manner described in order to save money, we have no evidence that this is happening and, as we made clear to your correspondent, the reports that we have come across are purely anecdotal.

While Bristol Council is committed to providing the highest possible level of service to our residents, we are equally committed to tackling all fraud where this exists. In this case, we have no evidence that this is taking place.

Steven Barrett, service director, landlord services, Bristol Council