Homes have gone without gas and hot water for more than a month after a stand-off between a housing association and a utility company.

Tenants at flats in Mitcham, including older people and families with children, have been told gas supplies will not be turned on until the end of next week.

Thousands of homes in the area were cut off on June 16 when water from a burst main flooded gas pipes.

Almost all were reconnected within a week – but 16 homes on the Phipps Bridge estate are still waiting.

Nilam Jadav has been left without proper cooking facilities or hot water.

She said: “It has meant visiting friends and going to the gym to shower.”

She said affected neighbours included a family with young children and a couple in their 70s.

Miss Jadav praised utility company Southern Gas Networks’s (SGN) initial response but said: “Now it’s a handful of people left SGN just hasn’t bothered.”

The residents need new gas pipes fitted before the supply is resumed – but last week SGN said the discovery of asbestos at the 16 flats meant workmen had not been able to start work.

A customer service adviser from the company told Miss Jadav the work was being held up by the local authority – although he is understood to have meant housing association Merton Priory Homes (MPH), which took control of the flats last year, rather than the council.

The adviser said the association “did not want to pay for the asbestos to be removed so we can do our work”.

MPH did not comment on the dispute specifically.

This week an SGN spokesman said it was working with MPH and was keen to reconnect the homes as quickly as possible.

He said an “alternative route” had been found for the pipes.

Pauline Ford, MPH’s managing director, thanked residents for their patience and said the asbestos posed no danger to them.

She said MPH had carefully considered the methods for restoring gas suggested by SGN, and was co-operating fully with the company.