Councils want to work as partners with central government to tackle poverty and carbon reduction with a focus of eradicating poverty and maximising the use of waste heat from incinerators and data centres, for example. This can only be achieved by working with local leadership.
About the Local Government Association (LGA)
The Local Government Association (LGA) is the national voice of local government. We are a politically led, cross party membership organisation, representing councils from England and Wales.
Our role is to support, promote and improve local government, and raise national awareness of the work of councils. Our ultimate ambition is to support councils to deliver local solutions to national problems.
Headline response
Councils want to work as partners with central government to tackle poverty and carbon reduction with a focus of eradicating poverty and maximising the use of waste heat from incinerators and data centres, for example. This can only be achieved by working with local leadership.
Local government recognises the importance of improving technical standards across heat networks to deliver better outcomes for residents. Councils are committed partners in this transition. However, the Heat Network Technical Assurance Scheme (HNTAS), as currently proposed, presents significant challenges that risk undermining both its deliverability and affordability.
The proposed framework is disproportionate, costly and operationally unachievable within the consultation timeframes. The projected administrative burden—approaching £1 billion—would fall directly on consumers, with limited corresponding benefit. Experience from the sector demonstrates that excessively complex governance arrangements do not reliably improve customer outcomes.
Most existing heat networks are managed by local authorities and housing associations, many on a not‑for‑profit basis and often at considerable financial loss. These organisations are also contending with urgent and competing statutory duties, including building safety, damp and mould, Decent Homes, and Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES), while striving to meet ambitious housing delivery commitments. Under the current proposals, HNTAS would eliminate any additional resource created through social rent convergence and is therefore not financially sustainable.
A revised and more proportionate model is needed—one which raises technical standards and protects consumers, while remaining deliverable and financially viable. This is also central to maintaining investor confidence ahead of heat network zoning.
It is essential to distinguish between new heat networks, where improved standards can be embedded from the outset, and existing networks, many of which were built over several decades without national technical standards or dedicated public investment. We therefore support a pause and review of HNTAS in its current form and propose the following approach:
New Build Heat Networks
- Adopt an outcomes‑based, verifiable technical standard, aligned with BS 0:2021 (Principles of Standardisation).
- Introduce organisation‑level assurance and licensing, with self‑certification similar to existing Ofgem‑recognised schemes (e.g. NERS, GIRS) or via independent assurance providers such as Lloyd’s Register.
- Implement a minimum five‑year transition period, aligned with planning and development cycles.
Existing Heat Networks
- Minimum Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Mandatory standards on outage frequency and duration, and delivered temperatures, with compensation for non‑compliance.
- Transparent Price Guarantees: Variable charges should reflect actual energy costs, with a minimum 40 per cent distribution efficiency applied in tariff calculations.
- Fair Approach for Service‑Charge‑Based Schemes: Exemptions where revised billing models would increase resident costs.
- Long‑term investment planning: Improvements planned over 20 to 30 years, with consideration of continued funding such as extending the Heat Network Efficiency Scheme beyond 2027/28.
Metering and Monitoring
- The Metering and Monitoring Standard should be separated from HNTAS and subject to independent review prioritising resident outcomes.
- Full engagement with owners, leaseholders and tenants is essential, with the supply chain in an advisory role.
- Clarity is required on timelines, mandatory installation, powers of entry, and implications for mixed‑tenure buildings.
Skills and Workforce Capacity
- A long‑term workforce strategy is needed to avoid supply chain bottlenecks and rising costs.
- Support should include training, apprenticeships, mentoring and CPD to expand the professional heat network workforce over the next five years.
Local government wants to work with government and industry partners to develop a practical and effective approach. However, HNTAS must be redesigned to ensure it is affordable, proportionate and deliverable for councils that manage existing networks.