£320m for ‘central heating for cities’ scheme

The government will invest £320 million over the next five years in schemes across the country’s towns and cities to take low carbon heat and supply it to keep homes and businesses warm.

Dubbed ‘central heating for cities’, heat networks are already used widely across Scandinavian cities to keep homes warm in winter, holding the potential to reduce heating costs by more than 30 per cent for some households.

Some heat networks already exist in Sheffield, Nottingham, Birmingham, Southampton, with one of the largest new networks being installed the Olympic Village network in East London. But the UK has far fewer networks than other European countries

Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said: “This is an important next step in developing more home-grown energy, which is a vital part of our plan to ensure long-term energy security and affordable energy for our families and businesses.

“The funding we’re consulting on today will enable these schemes to provide affordable low carbon energy to thousands of homes and businesses across Britain’s town and cities.”