WYNDFORD Tenants Union is celebrating a win this week, after a year-long battle with energy firm SSE resulted in the company agreeing to the group’s demands.

The residents have been fighting the company’s decision to implement a district heating scheme in the Maryhill area since the start of 2019. The union said the scheme forces residents to use SSE as an energy supplier at higher rates with no choice of switching to another company.

SSE has now opened up the Low User Tariff to all Wyndford residents whose energy consumption lies below 2,000kwh per annum, as well as promising that the area will receive “smart” energy readers and public consultations with the company ahead of installation.

Ellenor Hutson, caseworker at Living Rent, said: “I’m really pleased to see that SSE will no longer gatekeep its low-use tariff.

“Giving customers the best tariff for their usage is just common sense and should never have been subject to a means test.

“This would never have happened without our campaign and shows what Wyndford residents can achieve when we work together”

READ MORE: Wyndford Tenants Union storm SSE office to protest high energy charges

The Low User Tariff previously only applied to certain groups of low-income residents, with many of the Wyndford residents failing to make the criteria for the reduced rate, while the district heating scheme means the residents are charged a standing charge regardless of use.

The decision comes after members of Wyndford Tenants Union stormed SSE head offices on Waterloo Street to demand action, after bosses had failed to meet the demands of the group months earlier to make the Low User Tariff open to all, to organise a public meeting and to install smart readers.

At the demonstration on Waterloo Street on November 28, Frank Martin, a Wyndford resident, said: “I saw my neighbour yesterday and he was saying he has no hot water, no heating.

"You know, he comes to the door and he has layers and layers of clothes on just to keep warm – and you see that regularly.”

Rochelle Dickson, head of customer service SSE Enterprise Utilities, said: “In listening to Wyndford residents we’ve now gone further than their request by making the Low User Tariff available for all residents at Wyndford to apply for, as long as their usage falls below 2,000 kWh per annum.

“This is in addition to a package of measures we have already announced this year including holding monthly customer surgeries, expanding the vulnerability criteria and the promise to install prepayment meters.”