A woman living alone has been left without heating for more than a week in the middle of winter.

Jill Barclay, who lives in Briar Close, East Finchley, has not had a working boiler since Tuesday, December 27.

Her daughter Dannii, who lives in Essex, has been chasing up the matter with housing association Home Group who said they could not fix the problem until this Friday, January 6.

In previous months, Jill’s house has also been burgled and Dannii deemed Home Group’s replacement door and lock meant to reinforce the house inadequate.

Jill, 57, works full time and lives on her own so will have to wait in all day for workers to arrive and fix the boiler as a specific time is not given.

Dannii said: “It is just the same old with Home Group, they claim to have had staff off and cancellations delaying them from getting to my mother’s problem.

“But this is the Christmas season when more boilers fail than any other time, surely a housing association should be extra-prepared for these periods of the year.

“Now my mother’s life has been unfairly disrupted both by the discomfort of a failed boiler and the inconvenience she will have to sit through waiting for the repair workers to arrive.”

She also questioned why Home Group was not reinvesting its £44.2 million surplus from the previous financial year into bolstering their service for increased seasonal demand.

According to Home Group, Jill’s boiler required a new programmer part which needed to be delivered and heaters were offered to her in the meantime.

They also said their policy with burgled houses is to make them “immediately safe” with replacement doors, windows and locks.

Assistant director of customer service Andrea Thorn said: “We work in partnership with regional maintenance contractors.

“Repair and service trends are monitored to ensure we have adequate resources available to achieve repair response times which are determined by the nature of the repair and customer circumstances.

“These trends are used to shape repair appointments including the provision of a 24/7, 365 day emergency repair service which includes a 6 hour emergency response time.

“While we strive to deliver customer service excellence through robust contract monitoring, there may be an odd occasion where repair works are unable to be completed within response times – for example, where specific none stock item materials need to be ordered.

“We reinvest any surplus back into the business to continue to improve and maintain properties and components.