SSE have created a Monopoly on the Royal Arsenal Riverside. Locking residents into an agreement between Berkeley Homes and SSE for 10 years. 

SSE themselves claim: Multiple interruptions where unplanned interruptions exceed 4 or more occasions (in any calendar year). This standard is in place to ensure we maintain a continuity of supply to your home and if we don’t achieve this that you are compensated appropriately.

SSE also claim: Compensation will be paid if failure to restore a CAT A call within 12 hours from first notification. This standard is in place to respond appropriately to incidents affecting the Heating service during the period 01 October to 30 March in any calendar year.

As seen below this CAT A rule results in a manipulation of reporting - SSE submitting multiple reports for the same outage to prevent paying out claims. 

The outages for 2020 of heat and hot water, sometimes both for 2 buildings on the RAR are: 

• 23/01/2020
• 29/03/2020
• 26/04/2020
• 30/05/2020
• 07/06/2020
• 09/06/2020 attended the energy centre to completed routine planned maintenance. while completing routine maintenance it was discovered that a valve had seized, had this of not been replaced then an unplanned interruption to the supply would have taken place, the plant was therefore shutdown and the valve replaced to facilitate this work. As this was emergency work to prevent an unplanned interruption and was not scheduled maintenance your Guaranteed Standards claim has been rejected 
• 21/07/2020
• 30/07/2020
• 06/10/2020
• 19/10/2020 - 22/10/2020 energy centre shutdown to allow for the safe installation of bulk heat meters and to install isolation valves on the pumps
• 27/10/2020
• 08/12/2020

• 26/12/2020 - 28/12/2020

  • On the 26/12/2020 at 20:15 we were first notified of a CAT A fault. We fixed the issue on 27/12/2020 at 07:09.

  • On the 27/12/2020 at 10:09 we were first notified of a CAT A fault. We fixed the issue on 27/12/2020 at 20:25.

  • On the 28/12/2020 at 02:22 we were first notified of a CAT A fault. We fixed the issue on 28/12/2020 at 13:35.

  • On the 28/12/2020 at 14:45 we were first notified of a CAT A fault. We fixed the issue on 28/12/2020 at 19:53.
    All of the above is under the 12 hours we have to restore a CAT A incident.                  

Residents are faced with an impossible situation. A supplier which does not pay out compensation for issues resolved in under 12 hours, prices continue to rise year on year, and residents are not allowed to change supplier. 

SSE also refuse to register MPAN numbers on public record as a result of this monopoly agreement. SSE even refuse to provide residents with MPAN numbers stating 'the MPAN number will be useless to you as you cannot change supplier. SSE will not provide this'. 

We call on Berkeley Homes to do more! Lift the Monopoly!