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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
John Paul Clark

Edinburgh dad says Scottish Power left his family of five without heating or hot water

Scottish Power have left an Edinburgh family of five without heating or hot water all weekend, it has been claimed.

The local family from Wester Hailes contacted Edinburgh Live after they spent last night without any power central heating, when the gas supply was cut off.

Father-of-four, Jason Milligan, arrived home from work last night to discover that the power had been cut off.

READ MORE: More Edinburgh to London trains announced as LNER returns to full service

Since then he has been in constant dialogue with Scottish Power but they are now claiming not to be providing his gas, despite billing Mr Milligan every month.

Speaking to Edinburgh Live, he explained their ordeal: “I work as an NHS porter and finished my work last night, picked my kids up and as soon as I got in the house I noticed there was no gas.

“I checked the meter and it was out, so I pressed reset and it didn’t work. My meter is a direct debit so everything is always paid.

“I got onto Scottish Power and phoned eleven numbers in total and they all kept redirecting me back to the same closed line.

“I eventually go through to a line that said ‘if you have an emergency then press one.’

“A guy answered and said they wouldn’t be able to attend until Monday.

“So I said fine and I got in touch with my local authority and they came out last night and gave me two emergency heaters, but I still have no gas, I have no hot water and I still have my four kids in the house.

“My daughter has medical issues so this situation can’t go on. I have just phoned Scottish Power this morning and spoke to someone and they said they don’t even supply me!”

Jason says Scottish Power have arranged for him to call back and speak to someone on Monday morning but he is now faced with having to stay at home with his children in a freezing cold flat with no hot water for the rest of the weekend.

The dad only recently moved into the property and had already been having issues with Scottish Power, when the wrong address began to appear on his bills.

He continued: “Now, I moved in this property in November and have been paying Scottish Power £67 per month by direct debit for my gas so I asked him about that.

“He explained to me that it was a company called E-gas who are my provider. So, I phoned them up and they said no, they didn’t provide my energy and put me onto Utilita Energy.

“I phoned Utilita Energy and they don’t know anything about the box, and said it must be run by a business.

“I got the keys for this place on November 23rd and the minute I got in there I went with Scottish Power. I got a welcome pack form them and downloaded the app. However, it started showing up on the gas section as different address in this area. That was still the case right up until last night when this happened.

“I am just going round in circles with Scottish Power now, have sent them emails with screenshots proving my payment, or screenshots of readings from my gas meter, but it doesn’t make any difference.”

Jason is hunkering down and preparing for a long weekend ahead looking after his children.

He even says that Scottish Power had previously agreed to a 24-hour call out because he had a disabled child.

Jason said: “Do you know, when I moved in I just went with Scottish Power rather than any other provider.

“I’ve been talking to Scottish Power now for weeks, with the address thing, and now this issue with having no gas and do you know what the funny thing is?

"When you have a complaint or an energy emergency it takes ages to get an answer or response but when you are phoning them to make a payment they take your call right away.

“So as it stands right now, I have no gas, I don’t know who is my provider and the best Scottish Power are saying they can do for me is to arrange another phone call for Monday morning, when I am meant to be working.

“We are all freezing here, all we have are two tiny heaters to heat all of us. Scottish Power know that one of my daughter’s is disabled and had previously told me that this covers me for a 24-hour call out but it seems to be making no difference.”

Edinburgh Live contacted Scottish Power for comment but they had not replied by the time this article was published.

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