A HOUSING association has apologised after residents on an estate were left without heating for five days.

The boilers on the Ladderswood Estate serving four tower blocks broke down on Friday last week, depriving residents of heating during a cold and rainy weekend.

Enfield Homes has today issued an apology for the problems residents have experienced, and promised to have them fixed by the end of today.

Robert Edwards, 76, who had lived on the New Southgate estate for more than 40 years, said: “It is absolutely ridiculous, there was the bad weather over the weekend and my wife coming out of hospital – it's been terrible.

“We pay £23 a week for the heating and nothing seems to be happening to fix it, just a lot of people passing the buck.”

The housing trust, which operates council homes on behalf of Enfield Council, said the delay in repairing the run-down boilers was because engineers had to wait for a new part which arrived today.

The problems were compounded for some residents whose homes were flooded on Friday. The water supply to some of the flats was disconnected for “urgent building works”, and some of the taps were left on when the supply came back on.

The housing trust said in a statement: “We are sorry that the residents of Ladderswood were inconvenienced because of problems with their water supply last week.

“Enfield Homes has done everything in its power to resolve these issues as quickly and effectively as possible, and will continue to work with residents to resolve these issues.”

The residents affected by flooding have been moved to temporary accommodation until the flooding has been cleaned up, it added.

The estate is due to be largely bulldozed and regenerated with new homes, in a major flagship scheme from the council.

But Mr Edwards added: “This has been happening on and off since 2008. They say the quality of life will be improved when they rebuild it. But where's the quality of life now?”