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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to her Oral Answer of 19 November 2015, Official Report, columns 813-14, on the district heating sector, what recent assessment she has made of consumer confidence in district heating systems.

The government supports heat networks because, in the right circumstances and where efficiently operated, they can provide a cheaper, lower carbon heating solution than separate heating systems in individual dwellings. We know that not all existing heat networks meet these conditions. Consumer confidence will be vital to enable the sector to grow.

DECC wants to see the development of schemes that do not detrimentally affect their customers and we have made clear that any funding provided through DECC’s Heat Network Investment Project will need to demonstrate this in the consultation document published today www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-the-heat-networks-investment-project-hnip.

We have also been working closely with industry on the development of ‘Heat Trust’, a voluntary consumer protection scheme for heat network customers and on the development of the Heat Network Code of Practice, which sets minimum standards for the design, installation and operation of heat networks. More details can be found on these initiatives here:

• Heat Trust http://heattrust.org/index.php;
• Heat Network Code of Practice http://www.cibse.org/knowledge/cibse-other-publications/cp1-heat-networks-code-of-practice-for-the-uk.