Residents of a block of flats in Bradford who have been left without central heating since Christmas Day have been assured the fault will be fixed today.

Tenants of Newcastle House in Barkerend Road lost their heating on Christmas night and say that attempts to find out when it might be restored have met with little success due to the festive break.

Although most have since been provided with electric heaters by their landlord, Incommunities, one elderly resident said uncertainty over whether they would be able to claim the electricity costs back was causing anxiety for her and her neighbours.

Incommunities has apologised for the delay, and it has vowed to start repair works today. It blamed the delay on a fault occurring in a flat that its workers had been unable to gain access.

One elderly resident, who asked not to be identified, said: “It has been very cold. I haven’t had central heating since the evening of Christmas Day. I’ve had to use the heaters quite a lot and I don’t know how much it is going to cost on my electricity.

“I’ve rang Incommunities a few times but their offices are closed until after New Year. I’ve had a real difficulty getting through. The one person I did get through to couldn’t give me any time of when it will get fixed.”

An Incommunities spokesman said last night: “We can confirm that due to a pipe work fault customers at Newcastle House have been left without gas heating over the past five days.

“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this has caused our customers but unfortunately we faced difficulties in gaining access to the flat where the fault has occurred.

“Since this was reported temporary electric heating has been provided to customers at Newcastle House and we are visiting the block today to ensure that all customers available in the block are offered temporary heating.

“We have now managed to arrange access to carry out the repair and contractors will be on site tomorrow morning.”

Residents of neighbouring Fairfax House had also complained of no heating between Friday and yesterday but Incommunities said it was not aware of any problem with heating in that block of flats.