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

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, with reference to paragraph 2.96 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, Cm 9162, published in November 2015, how many local authority areas her Department plans to deliver funding for new efficient heat networks.

On 29 June, the Government published a consultation on a new major project to support investment in heat networks, the Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP).

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-the-heat-networks-investment-project-hnip.

The Heat Networks Investment Project is making up to £320m in capital support available to projects in England and Wales over the next five years, to increase the number of heat networks and to deliver cost-effective carbon savings.

The number of local authorities that will receive funding is dependent on the quality of applications received. We would expect that many of the 118 local authorities already supported by DECC’s Heat Network Delivery Unit (HNDU) on early stage development will apply for capital support.