Six places named to develop the first heat network zones

The government has named six towns and cities, with seven schemes between them, to develop England's first heat network zones, backed by £5.8m of funding.

On 25 October 2024 the government announced the first places in England that will develop heat network zones. It is the clearest sign yet of where zoning is likely to arrive first.

That makes six places and seven schemes, because London has two. Each will work up detailed plans for a heat network zone.

How this fits with what came before

The legal powers for zoning come from the Energy Act 2023, Part 8, Chapter 2 (sections 226 to 237)[source]. Before this announcement, the government's Heat Network Zoning Pilot worked with 28 towns and cities in England[source] to test methods for spotting where zones make sense. Most of the places named today also took part in that work, and they are now the ones moving furthest, fastest.

The £5.8m is shared between the schemes, and construction is expected to start from 2026. Building district heating at city scale will need far more investment than that, which is where zone developers come in.

What this is not

It is easy to read an announcement like this as "zones have been created". They haven't. The rules that would let a zone be formally designated, and that would require any building to connect, still have to be set out in regulations. Until then, these places are developing zones in the practical sense: mapping heat demand, identifying heat sources and lining up delivery partners.

What it means for building owners

If you manage a large building in Leeds, Plymouth, Bristol, Stockport, Sheffield or the Old Oak and Park Royal area of London, zoning has moved from a national idea to a local one. Expect conversations about heat networks to start earlier for you than for most. Now is a good time to pull together your heat demand data and note when your boilers are due for replacement, so you are ready when the local zone developer or council gets in touch.

Looking back from November 2026, no zones have been formally designated anywhere yet. Our place pages, such as Leeds, Plymouth and Westminster, track local progress.