What is heat network zoning?

The short answer

Heat network zoning is a planning system for heat. Government, working with councils, will mark out areas of England where a shared heat network is likely to be the cheapest low-carbon way to keep buildings warm. Those areas are called heat network zones. Inside a zone, certain buildings could be required to connect to the network once it reaches them.

The legal powers sit in the Energy Act 2023, Part 8, Chapter 2 (sections 226 to 237)[source]. They apply in England only[source]. But the Act only creates the framework. The detailed rules have to be set out in regulations, and at our last check the position on those was: Not yet laid before Parliament[source]. Until they are in force, no zone can be formally designated and no building can be told to connect.

What a heat network is

A heat network, sometimes called district heating, is a system of insulated underground pipes that carries hot water from a central source to many buildings. Each building takes the heat it needs through a heat exchanger instead of running its own boiler.

The source can be almost anything that produces heat at scale. Large heat pumps drawing warmth from rivers, sewers or the ground are common choices for new schemes. So is surplus heat from places that already make it, such as energy-from-waste plants, industrial sites, data centres or the London Underground. Because one central plant serves many buildings, it can be changed later without replacing equipment in every building on the network.

Heat networks are not new in England. Some city schemes have run for decades. But they supply only About 3% of UK heat demand[source]. Government's ambition is 7% of England's heat (27 TWh) by 2035[source].

What a zone is

A zone is an area where the numbers stack up. It usually has a dense mix of large heat users, such as hospitals, universities, offices and blocks of flats, and a nearby source of low-carbon heat. Where those come together, one network can serve many buildings more cheaply than each building could decarbonise its own heating.

Zoning does two things in such an area. It gives one developer the right to build the network, so investors are not competing for the same streets. And it gives that developer some certainty that enough buildings will connect to pay for the pipes. The second point is the heart of the policy, and the reason it needs law behind it. The chicken-and-egg explainer sets out why.

You may also see the term district heating zones. It means the same thing.

Which buildings would be covered

The government published its final policy in January 2026. It proposes that three kinds of building in a zone could be required to connect.

Two points are worth stressing. First, a typical house with its own gas boiler is not in any of these categories. Second, even a building that is in a category would only be asked to connect in limited circumstances: Only when the zone developer asks for it and the zone coordination body is confident the building can be connected in time[source].

How it would work in practice

Once a zone exists and a developer is building the network, a building that is due to connect would receive a formal notice. The owner would then have a set period to respond. The government's policy gives At least 6 months from receiving the notice[source] to agree a connection date with the developer or to apply for an exemption. The connection window itself would be At least 12 months long[source].

There would be grounds for exemption, for example where a building already has low-carbon heating with years of life left, or where a listed building cannot be adapted without disproportionate cost. The full list, and the penalties for not complying, are on our zoning regulations page. All of this is policy for now. It becomes law only when the regulations are made, and the details could still change.

Where it has got to

No heat network zone has been designated anywhere in England. At our last check the count of designated zones was: None yet[source].

What does exist is a long run of preparation. Government ran a zoning pilot with 28 towns and cities in England[source], and published a zone opportunity report for each one, mapping the most promising areas. A smaller group of places has gone further with government funding, appointing development partners or consulting on draft boundaries. Those steps are real, but none of them is statutory designation.

Our tracker records every place and the stage it has reached, and the timeline lists every dated step so far.

What zoning is not

Zoning is easy to confuse with other changes to heat networks happening at the same time.

It is not the same as Ofgem's new role. Ofgem became the regulator for heat networks across Great Britain on 27 January 2026[source]. That regime covers how networks treat their customers, including pricing, billing and complaints, and it applies to existing networks everywhere, not only in zones. Our Ofgem page covers it.

Zoning is also not a ban on other forms of heating. Outside a zone, building owners choose their own heating. Inside one, the requirement to connect would apply only to the categories above, only on notice, and subject to exemptions.

And it is not a decision about any particular street. Zones are drawn from analysis of heat demand and heat sources, then refined locally. The boundaries published so far are candidates, not law.

Why it matters

There is no single answer to replacing gas boilers. For individual houses, heat pumps will often make sense. For dense urban areas with large buildings and a nearby source of waste heat, a shared network can be cheaper and simpler. Zoning is the government's attempt to make sure those networks get built where they make most sense, rather than only where a developer happens to find willing customers.

Whether it works will depend on the regulations, on how quickly zones are designated, and on whether developers and investors respond. This site will track each of those as it happens.