If you provide heating, cooling or hot water from a shared system to homes, tenants or other properties, you may be operating or supplying through a heat network. The first step is to establish what heat networks you have and who they serve. What counts as a heat network A heat network uses a shared source to provide heating, cooling or hot water to more than one property. Where that shared plant serves several properties inside one building, such as individual flats, it is a communal heat network. Where it supplies more than one building, it is a district heat network. They turn up across residential developments, student accommodation, retirement housing, commercial buildings, shopping centres and mixed-use schemes. Not every shared heating system falls within the Ofgem framework, so how the building is occupied and supplied matters as much as the plant itself. What this means for your portfolio Do not assume that one building means one heat network. A building can contain more than one. A single network can serve several buildings. A mixed-use development can have entirely different arrangements for the homes, the shops and the offices. Start with the properties you manage and establish the arrangement for each one. For every network you need to know what properties or spaces it serves, who receives the heat, who operates it, who supplies it and whether more than one organisation is involved. That gives you the network map you need before you can work out which Ofgem requirements apply. The type of property matters The same shared heating arrangement can sit in a different regulatory position depending on who occupies the property and how heat is supplied to them. A block of self-contained flats supplied from shared plant is a different proposition from an office occupied entirely by one organisation. A student development can contain self-contained studios alongside accommodation with shared facilities. A mixed-use scheme can supply homes, shops and offices from the same plant with different organisations responsible for different parts of it. Building type alone will not give you the answer. You need to look at the network, the properties it serves, the people receiving heat and the organisations involved. See how this applies to different property types Map your portfolio in Spinview Start with the properties you manage and build the network picture from there. Spinview guides you through the information needed to identify each heat network, the properties it serves and the organisations involved. Once the network is mapped, Spinview guides you through the questions that determine what may apply, the organisations involved and the information needed for the next step. Where the position requires specialist interpretation, it is flagged for review. Start the Readiness Builder Some shared heating systems sit outside Ofgem's scope Having shared heating does not automatically mean every arrangement is regulated in the same way. Ofgem identifies specific arrangements that can sit outside the framework, including some houses in multiple occupation where the shared system is of single-dwelling capacity, certain converted buildings divided into multiple dwellings where the shared energy source has a capacity of no more than 45kW thermal, and single buildings with shared facilities that are not fully self-contained, such as some nursing homes. These are specific examples rather than a general exemption for small networks or particular property types. If your portfolio includes arrangements like these, check the individual network rather than assuming it falls one side of the line or the other. Check the current Ofgem scope guidance Start the Readiness Builder Ofgem and HNTAS look at your network differently Ofgem is interested in who operates the network, who supplies the heat and who receives it, because those relationships determine which requirements apply and which organisation carries them. HNTAS is interested in the physical network and how it performs, covering areas such as performance and reliability, metering and monitoring, technical improvement and eventual assessment and certification. The same heat network therefore needs to be understood in two ways at once. Spinview keeps both against the same network record. What HNTAS will look at Start the Readiness Builder
Heat network regulation and technical standards continue to develop. We review our guidance against information published by Ofgem and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and show the latest review date on regulatory and technical pages.
This website provides general information and practical tools. Requirements depend on the circumstances of each heat network, and this site is general information rather than legal, regulatory, financial or engineering advice. Where specialist advice is required it should be provided by an appropriately qualified adviser.
Spinview helps organisations collect, organise, review and maintain heat network information and evidence. RAG status shows information readiness within Spinview and is not a regulatory compliance determination. Regulatory responsibility, and the compliance determination itself, remains with the relevant operator or supplier.
Regulatory and technical sources last reviewed: 16 August 2026.