Communal heating, and the regulator that arrived in January

The heating goes back on across the country over the next few weeks. In a great many blocks of flats it does not come from a boiler in each home. It comes from one plant room in the basement or on the roof, feeding every flat through shared pipework, and the cost reaches residents through a bill, the rent or the service charge.

Since 27 January 2026 that shared system has had a regulator.

What changed on 27 January

The Energy Act 2023 made Ofgem the regulator for heat networks in Great Britain, and the Heat Networks (Market Framework) (Great Britain) Regulations 2025 put that into effect. From 27 January, Ofgem's authorisation conditions and consumer protection rules apply to heat network suppliers and operators, with the aim of giving heat network customers protection comparable to what gas and electricity customers already have.

Ofgem's consumer protection guidance covers standards of conduct, quality of service, billing and transparency, back-billing, heat supply contracts, protections for vulnerable consumers and security of supply. A deemed contracts regime started on the same day, so a resident connected to a network without a written contract is still covered by contract terms. The Energy Ombudsman has been the dispute resolution body for heat networks since 1 April 2025.

Operating a heat network or supplying heat to consumers now requires authorisation. Existing suppliers and operators are deemed to be authorised, so nothing switches off overnight. What they do have to do is register with Ofgem through its new digital service, and the deadline for that is 26 January 2027.

A communal boiler counts

It is easy to read "heat network" and picture a district scheme with an energy centre and pipes running under the street. Those exist, but they are the minority.

A district heat network supplies heat from a central source to more than one building. A communal heat network supplies heat and hot water to separate homes or premises within one building, which describes a large share of purpose-built flats. The most recent government figures, published in 2023, put the number of heat networks in Great Britain at around 12,000, and 78% of them were communal. The same figures counted 505,000 consumers on heat networks, more than 90% of them domestic.

So the question for most property managers is not whether they look after a district scheme. It is whether any of their buildings has a single plant room heating more than one home.

The rules this replaced

Before January, the main instrument was the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014. In Great Britain, the duty to notify networks and the cost-effectiveness tool behind the metering decision have both been revoked. Registration with Ofgem takes the place of notification, and meters already fitted on a network have to be maintained. The 2014 Regulations remain fully in force in Northern Ireland.

Technical standards are coming separately. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero consulted on heat network technical standards in January 2026, which will sit alongside Ofgem's consumer rules through the Heat Network Technical Assurance Scheme.

Where the heat is paid for inside the service charge

This is the part that tends to catch building managers out. In many blocks the supplier is not an energy company. As Ofgem puts it, the supply and operation of a heat network is often one part of a broader housing service, which in practice means a landlord, a housing association or a management company buying the fuel, running the plant and recovering the cost.

Citizens Advice published research on 31 July 2026 finding that 34% of heat network consumers pay for their heating within their rent or service charges, and that 52% of those consumers receive no bill or statement for it. When heat is folded into a wider charge, it is hard for a resident to see what they paid for, and hard for the person running the building to show it.

Whether a particular arrangement brings you within the regime is a question for Ofgem's guidance and, where it is not clear, for advice. What is clear is that the answer depends on facts about the building that somebody has to be able to produce.

What to have ready before registering

None of this needs a new filing system. It needs a handful of facts, held against the right building.

Which buildings each plant room serves, and how many homes and other premises are connected.

Who operates the plant and who supplies the heat, since those can be different parties.

Which heat meters exist on the network, where they are, and when each was last read.

The service, maintenance and repair history of the plant, including any outages and how long they lasted.

How the cost reaches residents, whether by bill, rent or service charge, and what they are told about it.

Which residents are known to be vulnerable, and what the arrangement is if the heating fails in January.

A network that has run for decades is no excuse for not knowing these. The Pimlico District Heating Undertaking in Westminster began operating in 1950, originally using heat from Battersea Power Station across the Thames, and now supplies 3,256 homes, 50 business premises and three schools. Its glass-faced accumulator tower at Churchill Gardens is Grade II listed. Age and heritage do not change the questions a regulator asks.

Where SAMRISK puts it

SAMRISK holds the building and the land it sits on across thirty connected systems, twenty for the building and ten for the land. A plant room and the network it feeds can be recorded as items against the building, with the homes they serve.

Heat meters sit in the keys and meters register with their readings over time. Boiler servicing, repairs and outages go through maintenance, with photos and sign-off on each job. The registration deadline and the recurring service dates go on the compliance calendar, so 26 January 2027 is a task with an owner rather than a date somebody remembers in December.

None of that decides whether your arrangement is regulated. What it does is mean that when the question is asked, the answers are already written down against the building they belong to.

Sources: Ofgem, Countdown to the launch of new regulatory rules for heat networks, 6 January 2026; Ofgem, Heat networks regulation: consumer protection guidance, January 2026; Ofgem, Heat networks regulation: authorisation conditions, outcome published 13 January 2026; The Heat Networks (Market Framework) (Great Britain) Regulations 2025; GOV.UK, Heat networks (metering and billing) guidance, updated 11 February 2026; Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Heat networks technical standards consultation, January 2026; Heat Trust, About heat networks, citing government data collected 2019 to 2022 and published 2023; Citizens Advice, press release on heat network debt and bundled charges, 31 July 2026; Pimlico District Heating Undertaking, published records.