Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has plans to reform the Default Tariff Act to extend Ofgem's regulatory powers to ensure that price caps apply to commercial contracts bought by communal heating systems.

There are currently no plans to reform the existing Default Tariff Act for heat networks. The Government has included powers within the Energy Bill, introduced to Parliament in July this year, which would enable price caps to be set in the heat networks sector. However, the Government has said it will proceed cautiously in setting price caps to avoid undermining investment in the sector and putting at risk the supply of heat to customers.