A man has been without heating or hot water for almost nine months after the boiler broke down in his council flat.

Steven Akintewe, who lives in Shropshire House, Edmonton, said he had faced a “stressful” time as he was forced to boil pots and pans on his oven to fill his bath.

He said he called Enfield Council to report the broken boiler on March 9 – before the first coronavirus lockdown.

“No-one came,” Mr Akintewe said. “I was phoning every single week, and they were saying ‘we are working on it’. I didn’t know where to turn.

“It was stressful, just being without hot water and not bathing properly. It’s cold. I’ve been getting cooking pots, putting them on the oven, heating them up and pouring them into my bath – back and forth, back and forth.”

Mr Akintewe said he emailed MP for Edmonton Kate Osamor and council leader Cllr Nesil Caliskan in October, and he was recently told someone would arrive to fix the boiler soon.

“It is still broken, but someone should be coming,” he said. “Also, they found out last month that my emergency tank has issues. Normally, if your boiler is not working, you have got an emergency tank.”

An Enfield Council spokesperson said: “We are very sorry to hear that Mr Akintewe was dissatisfied by the service provided by Enfield Council and for the delay in resolving the issues in his home.

“The delay was partly exacerbated by the outbreak of Covid-19, which caused unexpected and severe disruption to our repairs schedule and issues with getting access into the property. We are glad we are now in a position to proceed with the necessary repairs and the case will be resolved.

“It is one of our key priorities to provide warm, dry, good-quality homes, which is why Enfield Council made the decision to bring its repairs service fully in-house last year. We will always seek to improve and better this service to make sure tenants and leaseholders have decent homes in a good state of repair.”