{
  "dataset": "heat.networks",
  "generated": "2026-09-20T13:58:32.124Z",
  "licence": {
    "compilation": "CC BY 4.0",
    "compilation_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
    "attribution": "Tariff Tracker, tarifftracker.io, published by PEF Consulting Partners Limited",
    "underlying": "The figures themselves belong to the bodies named in each dataset's sources. Most are Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence v3. Supplier tariff rates belong to the suppliers who publish them. Check the source terms before you rely on any of it commercially.",
    "corrections": "If a figure here is wrong, say so and we will correct it and record that we did."
  },
  "docs": "https://tarifftracker.io/api/",
  "fields": "https://tarifftracker.io/api/v1/dictionary",
  "as_of": "2026-08-27",
  "applies_in": "Great Britain. Northern Ireland has no equivalent framework and we could not find one.",
  "regulator": {
    "regulator": "Ofgem",
    "in_force_from": "2026-01-27",
    "legal_basis": "Energy Act 2023, Part 8 and Schedule 18, brought in by the Heat Networks (Market Framework) (Great Britain) Regulations 2025, and amended in 2026.",
    "advocacy_from": "2025-04-01"
  },
  "how_many": {
    "households": 477000,
    "households_as_of": "December 2022 returns, published August 2025",
    "households_source": "https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689212c8a34b939141463f6d/heat-networks-regulation-government-response.pdf",
    "people": 1100000,
    "networks": 12000,
    "networks_note": "About 9,000 communal schemes inside a single block and about 3,000 district networks, with roughly 2,000 suppliers. The department says this is not a complete register and the real number is probably higher. The first authoritative count arrives when registration closes on 26 January 2027.",
    "share_of_uk_heat": "about 3 per cent"
  },
  "not_protected_by": [
    {
      "what": "The energy price cap",
      "answer": "No",
      "detail": "Ofgem states that you are not protected by the price cap if you get your heat from a heat network. There is no ceiling on what you can be charged for heat."
    },
    {
      "what": "Switching",
      "answer": "No",
      "detail": "There is no alternative supplier to move to. This is a monopoly by design."
    },
    {
      "what": "Guaranteed standards compensation",
      "answer": "Not yet",
      "detail": "The automatic payments gas and electricity customers get do not exist for heat networks."
    },
    {
      "what": "The Warm Home Discount",
      "answer": "On your electricity, not your heat",
      "detail": "The Warm Home Discount is £150 off an electricity bill. Most heat network households buy electricity separately from an ordinary supplier and can qualify on the same terms as anybody else. But it comes off the electricity bill and does nothing about the heat charges, which are the ones causing the trouble. If you have no electricity account of your own because power comes through a landlord or site owner, the core scheme does not reach you."
    }
  ],
  "what_to_do": [
    "Complain to your heat supplier first. Since 27 January 2026 every regulated supplier has to have a complaints procedure with one point of contact, has to acknowledge and investigate, and has to tell you how to escalate. The details must be on your bill.",
    "Check the twelve month rule. If they are billing you for heat used more than twelve months ago that they had not billed before, they are not allowed to, unless the charge falls under service charge rules.",
    "Check the bill against what a bill now has to contain. On a metered network it must be based on actual use and show this year against last year. If it does not, that is a breach of the rules, not a quirk.",
    "Get free advice while the complaint runs. Citizens Advice on 0800 223 1133 in England and Wales, or energyadvice.scot on 0808 196 8660 in Scotland. Both have had a formal role for heat network customers since 1 April 2025.",
    "Go to the Energy Ombudsman after eight weeks, or straight away if you get a deadlock letter. Membership is compulsory for regulated networks and the service is free.",
    "Tell Ofgem about the supplier's conduct. Ofgem does not settle individual disputes, but it enforces the rules, and a pattern is what makes it act.",
    "If your heat is billed through a service charge, the First-tier Tribunal route on service charge reasonableness may also be open to you. That sits outside the Ofgem rules and is a separate argument you can run alongside."
  ],
  "heat_trust": {
    "what": "An independent non-profit scheme with its own standards of conduct and its own complaints process.",
    "voluntary": true,
    "catch": "It is voluntary, so whether it covers you depends entirely on whether your supplier chose to join. Ofgem's rules cover every regulated network whether the operator wanted them or not. Heat Trust says it will keep running until Ofgem's equivalent rules are in force and enforced, which it expects in early 2027.",
    "url": "https://www.heattrust.org/coming-regulation"
  },
  "prices": {
    "cap": false,
    "median_annual_cost": 600,
    "median_comparison": 960,
    "median_what": "Self reported median annual cost of heating and hot water only, not a whole energy bill.",
    "median_year": "surveyed March to July 2022, published August 2023",
    "median_source": "https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1176451/heat-network-consumer-and-operator-survey.pdf",
    "median_caveats": [
      "About a quarter of the people asked could not give a figure at all.",
      "The fieldwork finished in July 2022, before the price rises of that autumn and winter. It is four years old and it is the most recent official figure there is.",
      "It measures heating and hot water only, so it is not comparable with a headline dual fuel bill."
    ]
  },
  "unverified": [
    "Whether heat network customers qualify for the Warm Home Discount is not stated anywhere official. The eligibility statement for 2026/27 does not mention heat networks, district heating or communal heating at all. What is written above is our reading of the published conditions, that you must be named on an electricity bill with a participating supplier, and not a quotation from the scheme.",
    "There is no official comparison of heat network unit rates against gas or electricity. Ofgem's own fair pricing consultation says the data does not exist in usable form and falls back on a 2018 competition study which it says may have significantly changed. Anyone showing you a pence per kilowatt hour comparison for heat networks is not quoting a primary source.",
    "A striking percentage rise in heat network bills has been quoted in a ministerial press release with no dataset, method or year attached to it. We have not repeated the number, here or anywhere, because a figure with nothing behind it is not a figure.",
    "The exact date price investigations begin. Ofgem's consultation said January 2027 at the earliest and its final guidance gives no start date.",
    "The current number of heat networks. The figure of about 12,000 rests on December 2022 returns which the department itself says are incomplete.",
    "The position in Northern Ireland. The Great Britain framework does not reach it and we found no equivalent."
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "name": "Ofgem, heat networks regulation is now live",
      "url": "https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/blog/heat-networks-regulation-now-live"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ofgem, consumer protection guidance",
      "url": "https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-01/Heat-networks-regulation-consumer-protection-guidance.pdf"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ofgem, fair pricing and cost allocation guidance",
      "url": "https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-01/Heat%20networks%20fair%20pricing%20and%20cost%20allocation%20guidance.pdf"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ofgem, if you are not protected by the energy price cap",
      "url": "https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/news/understand-your-energy-costs-if-you-are-not-protected-energy-price-cap"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ofgem, heat networks regulation timeline",
      "url": "https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/heat-networks/heat-networks-regulation-timeline"
    },
    {
      "name": "The Heat Networks (Market Framework) (Great Britain) Regulations 2025",
      "url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/269/introduction/made"
    },
    {
      "name": "Energy Act 2023, Schedule 18",
      "url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/52/schedule/18"
    },
    {
      "name": "Government response, implementing consumer protections",
      "url": "https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689212c8a34b939141463f6d/heat-networks-regulation-government-response.pdf"
    },
    {
      "name": "Heat Network Consumer and Operator Survey 2022",
      "url": "https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1176451/heat-network-consumer-and-operator-survey.pdf"
    },
    {
      "name": "Energy Ombudsman, heat networks",
      "url": "https://www.energyombudsman.org/how-we-can-help/heat-networks"
    },
    {
      "name": "Heat Trust, coming regulation",
      "url": "https://www.heattrust.org/coming-regulation"
    }
  ],
  "caveats": [
    "There is no price cap on heat networks and none is planned. The energy price cap does not reach these households, and neither does switching, because a heat network is a monopoly by design.",
    "There is no official comparison of heat network unit rates against gas or electricity. Ofgem's own pricing consultation says the data does not exist in usable form. Anything quoting a pence per kilowatt hour figure for heat networks is not quoting a primary source, and neither is this.",
    "The only official price figure is a self reported median from a survey whose fieldwork ended in July 2022, before that autumn's price rises, where a quarter of those asked could not give a figure at all, and which covers heating and hot water only. It is in prices with all three of those recorded.",
    "from is null where the thing is genuinely undated. Two of the coming items have no commencement date published and saying so is the honest answer rather than picking a year.",
    "unverified is the part worth reading. Whether heat network customers qualify for the Warm Home Discount is nowhere stated officially, and what this dataset says about it is a reading of the published conditions rather than a quotation.",
    "The regime covers Great Britain. Northern Ireland has no equivalent framework and we could not find one."
  ],
  "blanks": {
    "from": "Genuinely undated. Two of the things still to come have no commencement date published anywhere, and naming that is better than picking a year."
  },
  "count": 12,
  "rows": [
    {
      "protection": "Standards of conduct",
      "detail": "Five binding principles. Your supplier must behave fairly, honestly and transparently, give you complete and accessible information, run customer service processes that work, identify and support people in vulnerable situations, and engage with you actively.",
      "status": "in force",
      "in_force": true,
      "from": "2026-01-27",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "A written contract",
      "detail": "You must be given a written heat supply contract setting out the terms, the billing arrangements, who is responsible for what, the complaints procedure and how to escalate a dispute.",
      "status": "in force",
      "in_force": true,
      "from": "2026-01-27",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "A bill you can check",
      "detail": "On a metered network you must get an annual bill based on what you actually used, showing this year against last year, the charges itemised, how to pay, who to complain to, the Energy Ombudsman's details, and a notice that your supply is a monopoly.",
      "status": "in force",
      "in_force": true,
      "from": "2026-01-27",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "A twelve month back billing limit",
      "detail": "You cannot be billed for heat you used more than twelve months ago if the supplier had not billed you for it. This is the single most useful rule here, because a surprise catch up bill is the commonest complaint on heat networks. Ofgem carves out charges that fall under service charge rules in the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which will catch many leaseholders.",
      "status": "in force",
      "in_force": true,
      "from": "2026-01-27",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "A complaints route that ends somewhere",
      "detail": "Your supplier must run a complaints procedure with one point of contact and tell you how to escalate. Membership of the Energy Ombudsman is now compulsory. You can go to the Ombudsman after eight weeks, or straight away with a deadlock letter.",
      "status": "in force",
      "in_force": true,
      "from": "2026-01-27",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "Vulnerability support and a priority register",
      "detail": "Your supplier must identify occupants in vulnerable situations, offer a place on a priority services register and provide other ways of communicating.",
      "status": "in force",
      "in_force": true,
      "from": "2026-01-27",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "Fair pricing",
      "detail": "Prices must be fair and not disproportionate, tested against cost reflectivity, cost efficiency, reasonable returns, the effect on consumers, regulatory control and price transparency. This is a rule about conduct. It is not a cap and it sets no maximum price.",
      "status": "in force",
      "in_force": true,
      "from": "2026-01-27",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "Penalties and redress orders",
      "detail": "Ofgem can fine a supplier for breaking a condition and can make a consumer redress order where customers have lost out. That is an enforcement tool against a supplier, not something you apply for.",
      "status": "in force",
      "in_force": true,
      "from": "2026-02-20",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "Every network registered with Ofgem",
      "detail": "Every existing operator and supplier has to give Ofgem its ownership, financial resilience and consumer protection arrangements by this date. Until then nobody knows how many networks there really are.",
      "status": "coming, confirmed",
      "in_force": false,
      "from": "2027-01-26",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "Price oversight and investigations",
      "detail": "The department's response puts pricing oversight from January 2027, and Ofgem said price investigations would begin January 2027 at the earliest. Ofgem has said its focus at the start is helping the sector comply rather than enforcing, so do not expect fast price intervention.",
      "status": "coming, not firmly dated",
      "in_force": false,
      "from": "2027-01-01",
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "Automatic compensation for poor service",
      "detail": "Gas and electricity customers get fixed automatic payments when a supplier misses a standard. Heat network customers do not. Ofgem has said only that it may explore this in a future consultation. No amounts and no date exist.",
      "status": "not proposed with a date",
      "in_force": false,
      "from": null,
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    },
    {
      "protection": "Technical standards",
      "detail": "The Heat Network Technical Assurance Scheme will set standards for how networks are designed, built and run. Government says a planned launch in 2027, phased in. No commencement date is published.",
      "status": "coming, not dated",
      "in_force": false,
      "from": null,
      "page": "https://tarifftracker.io/energy/heat-networks/"
    }
  ]
}