A housing association has apologised after leaving a family of five with no heating or hot water for more than two days, as temperatures across the country plummeted.

Together Housing Association were contacted on Friday by a family living in a house in Blackburn after their carbon detector alarm went off.

The tenant, who did not wish to be named, said an engineer was sent round to the property, on Surrey Road in Whitebirk, and after checking the boiler, claimed it was unsafe and subsequently turned the gas supply off.

The father of three, whose children are aged five, three and just three weeks old, said: "On Friday I contacted Together Housing regarding this and a gas engineer came out.

"He checked everything and decided the boiler was not safe to be used.

"He cut off the gas supply to the property and said that the boiler needed to be fixed or replaced, and then the supply would be returned to normal."

However, following the initial callout, nobody from Together Housing's maintenance department returned and the family were left for the whole weekend with no gas, central heating, or hot water, with temperatures inside the house falling to minus two.

The tenant added: "I contacted them again and was told the issue had been raised as an emergency and someone would be with us as soon as possible.

"But nobody turned up.

"We have a five-year-old, a three-year-old and a three-week-old baby, we have no central heating, we've been left without hot water, and without any gas facility at all, and the temperature is minus two.

"I phoned them a few times and they told me nothing could be done over the weekend and we had to wait, we couldn't even cook food.

"They left us alone in the freezing cold without the basic needs of life."

On Monday afternoon, head of property care for Together Housing, Angela Stuttard, said: "We became aware of the issues relating to the gas supply at the tenant's property on Friday and on Saturday we provided temporary heating to the property.

"We are attending the property today to ensure that the boiler is back on and working.

"We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to the family over the weekend.”