Heat networks play a crucial role in bolstering energy security and lowering strain on national grid infrastructure. That’s why the Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF) is delighted to be backing five groundbreaking projects with over £78 million, including the UK’s first nationally significant strategic heat main spanning seven London boroughs.
- The London Strategic Heat Main (LSHM) project has been awarded £41.63 million commercialisation and construction funding through the GHNF. The project will transport low carbon heat more than 25km from the Thames Estuary into central London, supplying local heat networks to serve the equivalent of up to 650,000 London homes, or more than one million people.
- GHNF support will go towards the first phase of the project, where low carbon heat will be delivered along the Thames by mobile electric thermal barges to large, insulated hot water tanks housed in new pontoons, allowing heat to reach central London from 2028.
- The LSHM is set to reduce heating emissions by around 95% and eliminate nitrogen oxide emissions at source¹.
- The Riverside Heat Network has also been awarded £11.5 million worth of funding to supply low carbon heat to 20,000 local consumers in the Boroughs of Bexley and Greenwich.
- Today’s announcement also provides details of three additional heat network projects being awarded a share of over £25 million. A heat network in Marble Arch will serve mixed-use developments in the Oxford Street area. Meanwhile, projects in Bradford and Solihull are set to decarbonise hospitals, commercial outlets, businesses, and residential sites, while boosting local jobs.
In today’s announcement, we’re supporting five projects with over £78 million to tap into local surplus heat sources, placing us one step closer to securing an independent, fossil fuel free energy supply while unlocking over £5 billion of investment across London, Yorkshire, and the West Midlands.
Find out more about the London Strategic Heat Main, and the importance of this major infrastructure project, on our website.
We’re also supporting Cory’s Riverside heat network, alongside projects in Marble Arch, Bradford and Solihull, with a total of over £36 million, utilising excess heat from a local Energy from Waste facility, data centre, London’s Chalk Aquifer and the air around us, warming our homes while cooling the planet.
We’re delighted the GHNF is once again tackling climate change, creating cleaner air and reducing our reliance on international fossil fuel markets.
Martin McCluskey, Minister for Local Energy and Jobs, said:
“Clean power and clean heat benefits communities across our country. Building the infrastructure to deliver it is reindustrialising the UK and rolling out cutting-edge energy technology so families can benefit from lower bills, good jobs and energy security.
“And for those already using heat networks, we are upgrading inefficient systems to make sure people get the high-quality, low-cost, reliable heating they deserve.”
Ken Hunnisett, Head of Clean Heat at Triple Point, said:
“Maximising the use of home-grown energy – whether from the aquifer beneath Marble Arch, from London’s processed waste, or from the Yorkshire air – is a significant step towards an affordable and just transition to a fossil fuel free future. And with the teams at Bradford and Solihull upscaling operational networks that we’ve previously backed, we can be confident that this new funding is buying proof, and not just promise.”
London Strategic Heat Main (£41.63 million commercialisation and construction funding)
RHN Developments Limited, a Cory Group company, has secured funding for the LSHM. The project consists of hot water pipes, housed in tunnels, designed to transport low carbon heating more than 25km from the Thames Estuary into central London across seven boroughs, supplying the equivalent of up to 650,000 London homes via local heat networks, or more than one million people.
The award has been made to the UK’s first nationally significant heat infrastructure project on the scale of European systems. Cory operates the anchor heat source, Europe’s largest single-site energy from waste campus, which is located in Belvedere, South East London. The network is also designed to draw on multiple additional heat sources over time.
The ambitious project is expected to cut carbon emissions from heating by around 95%, while eliminating nitrogen oxide emissions from fossil fuel boilers at the source. Alongside its carbon benefits, the LSHM will also unlock more than £5 billion of local investment, while supporting jobs across the supply chain.
While the LSHM is under construction, heat will be delivered to homes and businesses in London via electric thermal barges. The barges will carry heated water up the Thames and deliver it to large, insulated hot water tanks housed in new pontoons, allowing heat to reach central London from 2028.
In March 2026, the Mayor of London and London Councils recognised the strategic nature of the LSHM, designating it a priority to deliver the London Growth Plan. Support provided through the GHNF brings London one step closer to a more independent energy supply, and enables the wider development of heat networks across the capital.
David Carter, Managing Director – Heat at Cory Group, said:
“This award is a major vote of confidence in heat transmission as part of the UK’s future energy infrastructure. The London Strategic Heat Main will allow us to capture surplus low carbon heat and move it to where it is needed, helping to cut carbon, improve energy security and support new investment across the capital.
“By delivering heat by barge while the permanent tunnel is developed, we can start serving Londoners sooner and demonstrate a model that could be replicated in cities across the UK.”
Riverside Heat Network (£11.5 million commercialisation and construction funding)
The GHNF is also supporting Cory and Vattenfall’s Riverside heat network, set to serve an initial 20,000 homes in and around the Bexley and Greenwich area. £11.5 million from the GHNF will support the early phases of the project, including the delivery of pipework to serve the Peabody social housing estates.
The heat network will provide low carbon heating to both new homes and social housing blocks through the Cory EfW facility in Belvedere. As the network expands, Cory expects the Riverside heat network to become the largest single heat network in the UK, serving up to 100,000 homes.
Alina Gheorghiu-Currie, Regional Director for London, Vattenfall said:
“The Green Heat Network Fund award for Riverside Heat Network is a significant step forward, helping us to unlock locally sourced heat for homes, businesses and public buildings. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Cory to deliver sustainable heat infrastructure that brings lasting benefits to communities across London.”
Marble Arch Energy Network (MAEN) (£11.4 million commercialisation and construction funding)
The Portman Estate has secured £11.4 million through the Green Heat Network Fund to help deliver new energy infrastructure for the Marble Arch district, supporting the long-term decarbonisation and resilience of mixed-use neighbourhoods near Oxford Street.
The funding will support the Marble Arch Energy Network, a proposed low carbon district energy network serving offices, residences, hotels and retail premises in Westminster.
Initially, the network is expected to provide heating and cooling to at least 34 connections and thereafter to expand incrementally. Once operational, it is expected to deliver 39 GWh of heating and 25 GWh of cooling each year, enough low carbon heat to meet the annual heating needs of around 3,000 average UK homes.
MAEN will use reversible water-source heat pumps to harness energy from the London Chalk Aquifer and will incorporate energy-sharing technology so that connected buildings can draw from or reject heat into the network according to their heating and cooling needs.
The project is designed to reduce associated carbon emissions from connecting buildings by up to 98% and improve local energy security in a part of London where individual building-by-building decarbonisation can be constrained by heritage fabric, limited plant space and electricity grid pressures.
The funding will allow The Portman Estate to progress the commercialisation of the scheme and procure a long-term delivery and investment partner to finance, design, build and operate the network. It is expected to support almost 200 skilled jobs, apprenticeships and trainee opportunities locally and nationally.
Simon Loomes, Strategic Projects Director at The Portman Estate, said:
“We are delighted to receive support from the Green Heat Network Fund for this transformative project that will benefit occupiers across The Portman Estate and the wider Westminster community. The Marble Arch Energy Network represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernise essential infrastructure within one of London’s most important commercial and mixed-use districts. The project will help create a more resilient, efficient and sustainable energy system for businesses, residents, hotels and retailers, while supporting the long-term competitiveness of the West End.”
Bradford Energy Network Southern Extension (£9.7 million commercialisation and construction funding)
In an extension to the Bradford City Centre project previously supported by the GHNF in Round 1, the scheme is now providing 1Energy with almost £10 million to further decarbonise buildings across Bradford.
The extension will provide an additional 16GWh of heat to 25 connections across the South of Bradford. This will see low carbon heat supplied to a local hospital, residential blocks, schools and college buildings. As a result of today’s further funding, 1Energy will be able to deliver a significant cost saving for customers versus installation of individual building level air source heat pumps (ASHPs).
The Bradford Energy Network was initially supported with £20 million grant funding in the GHNF’s inaugural round for constructing the city-wide network, which will be heated by large-scale ASHPs. With over 5km of pipework already installed across Bradford, the Thornton Road energy centre is nearing completion and ASHPs have been installed on site. Later this year the project will reach heat on and the networks anchor customers will begin to receive low carbon heat for the first time.
John Hartley, CEO at 1Energy, commented:
“This latest GHNF funding will allow us to build on the significant progress already made in Bradford, extending the network to serve more public buildings, homes and organisations across the south of the city. Crucially, by delivering heat at city scale, we can offer customers a more cost-effective route to decarbonisation while strengthening Bradford’s long-term energy resilience.
“With Heat On for the first phase approaching, this extension represents another important step towards our ambition of developing a truly city-wide heat network that will support Bradford’s buildings, communities and economy for decades to come.”
Solihull Energy Network Town Centre Expansion (£3.98 million commercialisation and construction funding)
Originally supported through the Heat Networks Investment Project (HNIP), Solihull Energy Limited is receiving almost £4 million to extend their low carbon heat network further across the town.
The existing heat network, currently under construction, will receive its supply from an energy centre in Tudor Grange Park housing a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system and air source heat pumps.
The heat network is already set to provide low carbon heat to public buildings, education sites, and commercial outlets. GHNF support will unlock further connections, bringing heat to further public buildings, schools, businesses, and a new mixed use commercial and residential development.
The Tudor Grange Energy Centre is nearing completion, and is designed with energy resilience in mind, helping the local authority to adapt the network’s heat provision to future demand fluctuations and regulatory changes.
Construction on the heat network extension is set to begin in summer 2027. The project will also boost local jobs and has already supported 126 apprentice weeks, work placements, and has delivered over £3 million in local supply chain expenditure, boosting the local and regional economy.
Cllr Andy Mackiewicz, Solihull Council’s Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Planning, said:
“This funding award is a major vote of confidence in Solihull’s vision for a cleaner, greener and more sustainable future.
“The Solihull town centre energy network is one of the most ambitious low carbon infrastructure projects being delivered in the region and this additional investment will allow us to extend its benefits to even more organisations and developments across the town centre.
“By bringing more buildings onto the network, we can help reduce carbon emissions, strengthen energy resilience and support sustainable growth, whilst making the most of the significant investment already made in the Energy Centre and network infrastructure.”
¹Note Heat Networks which draw heat from the London Strategic Heat Main may retain central gas boilers for back up.
