A refund is being demanded by aspiring Taunton Deane MP Mark Formosa for a disabled Wellington pensioner who was left £530 out of pocket after taking up a ‘free’ Government initiative to help keep his home warm.

Hugh Harkins qualified to have a replacement night storage heater fitted in his Wardleworth Way home at no cost under the Warm Front scheme.

The scheme, which is currently being promoted by Taunton Deane Borough Council, provides a package of insulation and/or heating measures up to a maximum value of £3,500.

Mr Harkins, aged 73, who is seriously ill and is cared for by his wife Ellen, needs to keep the house warm but found the existing 20-year-old heater was no longer up to the job.

Warm Front agreed to replace the heater and contracted the work to Southern Electric Contracting Ltd (SEC), which is one of 15 installers authorised by the Department for Energy and Climate Change to deliver Warm Front services in the Westcountry.

However, Mr Harkins discovered the ‘new’ radiator was not producing any heat, and he paid a total of £530 for a local electrician to first try to repair it and then to replace it.

The electrician informed Mr Harkins the Warm Front storage heater was ‘obsolete stock’ which appeared to have been bought in a bankruptcy sale.

Mr Harkins raised the issue at one of Mark Formosa’s Tuesday morning surgeries in Wellington Community Centre because he was concerned other elderly people may also have received out-of-date heating systems under the Warm Front scheme.

Mr Harkins, who is a cousin of the late Leeds United and Scotland footballer Billy Bremner, served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and then ran a café in Wellington before retiring.

Mark Formosa said:

I am appalled that a Government-funded scheme like Warm Front which offers free help to vulnerable people should turn out to be no help whatsoever to Mr Harkins and cost him over £500 of his own money.

Something has gone very seriously wrong if Government-appointed contractors can buy obsolete bankruptcy stock and install it for elderly and very ill people who think they are getting new heating to help keep down their fuel bills.

I am aware that Warm Front has already been heavily criticised by charities such as Help the Aged for its lack of accountability and inefficiency and that it has been described as ‘not fit for purpose’.

I am now asking SEC to look into Mr Harkins’ case as a matter of urgency to explain what has happened and to refund his £530.

I am also informing the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, how his scheme appears to be being abused and asking him what he is doing to stop this sort of thing happening again.