A man is “frustrated” as the homes in his street have been left without hot water or heat for 24 hours.

The adverse weather conditions yesterday afternoon (Sunday, December 10) resulted in an underground cable losing power, which affected the houses in Fearnley Street, Watford.

John Davies, who lives in the street, says he has been frantically calling the UK Power Network to get the problem fixed but they are “taking too long” to get the cable up and running again.

The 35-year-old is concerned as he has many elderly neighbours and temperatures reached minus degrees last night.

He said: “It is dangerous for us to be this cold and I feel frustrated that it is taking so long to be fixed.

“I’m worried as many vulnerable and elderly people live here and they may struggle to eat or keep warm without power.

“In the middle of last night I had to sit in my car just to charge my phone and put the heating on. It should not have taken 24 hours to get sorted out.”

A spokesperson for UK Power Network has since said: "UK Power Networks engineers worked through Sunday night to try to restore power to customers in the Fearnley Street area of Watford following a fault on an underground cable just after 5pm. It was an unusually complex fault which took more than 24 hours to resolve.

"We sent our community support vehicle to the area yesterday to provide hot food and drinks and to enable customers to charge up batteries and phones. Our customer champions and the community partners The British Red Cross also went to the site to help any vulnerable customers who were affected.  Residents who would feel vulnerable in a power cut can sign up for free extra help with our Priority Services Register.

"We understand how difficult it can be without power – especially during this very cold spell of weather – and we apologise for the inconvenience caused. We are proactively contacting all residents who were affected for 24 hours or more to offer £200 as a goodwill gesture."