Heat Networks: The New Regulated Utility
From January 2026 Ofgem regulates heat networks, and a landlord selling heat to tenants is now an energy supplier with obligations to match.
10 min read · Jacob Willis, Net Zero Lead · Last reviewed July 2026
On 27 January 2026, a quiet revolution reached commercial property: Ofgem became the regulator of heat networks across Great Britain. Any landlord that generates heat centrally and supplies it to tenants, every communal boiler serving a multi-let building, every district scheme feeding an estate, is now operating in a regulated market with authorisation conditions, consumer-protection duties and an ombudsman behind it. For a sector used to treating the boiler house as private plumbing, this is a genuine change of legal category, and this lesson explains what the new regime requires and why it existed to begin with.