Hundreds of neighbours across several blocks of flats were left without heating and hot water for days after problems with the development’s communal boilers.

Circulating pumps at the Meriden development, on Garsmouth Way, suffered a malfunction on Friday afternoon, leaving more than 200 homes without hot water until Wednesday.

Jane Hamm, 32, and her six-year-old daughter Jessica returned home on Friday evening to find the radiators unresponsive and the taps running cold. 

“Our neighbours have been saying it’s a disgrace. We’ve been feeling miserable,” she said.

“Hundreds of people have been left without heating or hot water. By Monday afternoon the heating was back on but we still had no hot water.

“They said they were working on getting the hot water back but we still haven’t been able to wash our hair.”

Mother-of-two Lisa Coat, 39, said she was kept awake most of Friday night checking on her one-year-old baby, and was forced to sleep in her clothes because of the freezing temperatures.

“I’m more concerned about the people in the low rises. There’s a 92-year-old woman living in the flat below us,” she said.

“We didn’t have any heating for two weeks in November either. We’ve been told it’s all been fixed now. We just don’t want it to happen again.”

Watford Community Housing Trust, which owns the blocks, said the heating and hot water had now been restored, and apologised for the inconvenience caused.

Ben Johnson, assistant director of property at the Watford Community Housing Trust, said: “We fully understand how difficult it is to be without heating and hot water, especially at this time of year, and would like to apologise to our customers who were affected by the recent issues with the communal system at the Meriden.

“These were caused by a problem with the circulating pumps, which prevented heating and hot water being delivered to people’s homes.

“We have been working closely with our contractor since we learnt of the problem in order to resolve it as quickly as possible and, although these works are ongoing, we have now restored heating and hot water to all homes.

"We also maintained regular communications with all residents to keep them informed and offer assistance where required.

“The trust is currently in the process of upgrading the communal heating system in order to ensure a more consistent service in future.

"We recently invested in significant improvements to the boiler capacity within the system and we are implementing a comprehensive new maintenance regime to ensure that potential problems can be identified and dealt with quickly.”