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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a price cap for people in community heat networks; what his timeframe is for introducing that price cap; and what interim support for energy costs his Department is providing those people.

The Queen’s Speech on 10^th May, confirmed that the Government has now committed to legislating to regulate the heat networks market in this parliamentary session as part of the Energy Security Bill. The legislation will provide the BEIS Secretary of State with powers to introduce a price cap should it be necessary to protect consumers from anti-competitive behaviour. The Government has announced a package of support to help households with rising energy bills: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-living-support/cost-of-living-support-factsheet-26-may-2022.