British Gas apologises after Barrow mum left without hot water

Jade Roy, who lives in Barrow, had a gas leak and had to ring an emergency engineer to shut off the supply on July 19. Her children are 17-months old. 

"They told me they couldn't fix it there and then as they don't fix smart meters and it's down to my supplier," she said. 

British Gas has apologised to Ms Roy (Image: Jade Roy)

She explained the situation to British Gas the next day. She said the advisor told her she would have to wait three weeks with no hot water and no heating.

"I repeated that I had two young children, and that I couldn't possibly go that long," she said.

"With the amount of dishes and baths I need to do with the children it would be hell to go that long." 

Ms Roy said she rang six different departments the next day before someone took her case seriously.

Ms Roy faced having no hot water or heating for three weeks (Image: Pixabay)

"I was told this time that it should be treated as an emergency but they couldn't do anything because it was the weekend," she said. 

"I should have been classed as an emergency case."

Ms Roy said a third person she spoke to from British Gas was 'shocked' at how she had been treated. 

Faced with the prospect of having no gas for three weeks, Ms Roy had to come to an arrangement with her children's father. 

After The Mail reached out to the company for a comment, a British Gas spokesperson said: ‘We arranged for an engineer to attend on 22 July, and this has now been fully resolved for Ms Roy, whose heating and hot water is back up and running.

"Unfortunately, she wasn’t given a priority appointment when she called us on 20 July, we’ve been in touch to let her know we’re sorry and that we’ll also apply a goodwill credit on her account in light of this.'"