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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress his Department has made on bringing communal heating networks under OFGEM regulation and making them subject to the energy price cap.

The Government remains committed to the important measures in the Energy Security Bill to deliver change in the energy system over the long term, including giving new powers to Ofgem as the preferred regulator for the heat networks sector. The UK is facing a global energy crisis and the Government must ensure it prioritises, delivering the measures in the Energy Prices Act, including introducing the Energy Price Guarantee and Energy Bill Relief Scheme. The Energy Security Bill contains powers to set price caps in the heat network sector but government has committed only to utilising these powers in the future cautiously as ‘heat tariff’ caps would risk deterring investment and innovation in a nascent market key to lowering emissions and reducing consumer bills over the longer term.