Neighbours have been offered a £200 “goodwill gesture” by an electricity company after they were left without hot water or heat for 24 hours.

People living in Fearnley Street, Watford, were affected by the adverse weather conditions on Sunday, December 10, due to an underground cable losing power.

John Davies, who lives in the street, was concerned UK Power Network were “taking too long” to fix the cable.

The 35-year-old feared the freezing temperatures would affect vulnerable or elderly people who may have struggled to cook food or keep warm.

However, the cable was fixed by 11pm on Monday and a spokesperson for UK Power Network has since “apologised for the convenience caused”.

They added their community support vehicle visited the area to provide hot food and drinks, along with providing chargers for phones.

The spokesperson 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."

Tomasz Wilczak, who lives in Fearnley Street, responded: “This sounds good but the most shocking thing to me was there was no way to get emergency help after normal working hours.”

Mr Davies added the goodwill gesture being offered was “fantastic”.