成人论坛

Samantha Davies lives in the Uppingham Road area of Leicester with her eight-year-old son.

She is a city council tenant, and her landlords have told her that her weekly fuel payments are going to increase by 76 per cent from 10 November 2008.

Listen: Interview with Samantha Davies

成人论坛 Leicester's Chris Highton went to speak to Samantha and her mother Janet...

Samantha is one of 3,000 council tenants in Leicester who are facing the 76 per cent rise in their heating bills.

It's because they get their domestic gas from the council's own district heating service.

Up almost 拢40 per month

Samantha's mother, Janet, says that it's a problem because of the way the bills are paid:

"It's paid 52 weeks a year, whether you have your heating on or not, and they are not cold maisonettes, so most of the time you're never using the heating anyway."

"It's making me feel a bit sick"

She says she's very concerned:

"It's very worrying, it's making me feel a bit sick really because I'm worrying how I'm going to pay it."

The ward councillor for Samantha's area is Mary Draycott. She says she understands how difficult things are at the moment:

"These huge increases to energy costs have affected everybody.

"Samantha's circumstances are very serious and I have the deepest sympathy with her and her family, and indeed everybody else who's struggling like this."