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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2016 to Question 41211, what steps she plans to take to ensure that heat networks provide value for money for customers.

We are putting consumers at the heart of the heat network programme.

DECC published the Heat Network Investment Project consultation last week[1]. The consultation explicitly says one of the key criteria for receiving funding will be value for money for consumers. We are also consulting on whether to make our support conditional on schemes signing up to Heat Trust and the ADE/CIBSE Code of Practice. The consultation closes on 3 August.

[1] Heat Networks Investment Project: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/532483/HNIP_consultation_vFINAL.pdf