South East spotlight: Low-cost and reliable heating for council tenants in Thurrock and Enfield

Heat pumps have been quietly providing entire communities with reliable and energy-efficient heating since Kensa’s world-first Heat the Streets project in Cornwall in 2021. This allowed entire streets to replace their fossil fuel boilers for renewable energy powering 100% of their space and water heating needs.

The secret is district heating networks: a system that distributes heat from a common, sustainable source, to multiple homes through a network of underground pipes.

Now, in Essex and London, they are being used to heat homes for public housing tenants without fuss, all year round.

In 273 homes in Thurrock and 400 homes in Enfield have are seeing reduced bills and warmer homes, providing a benefit to local communities and councils alike. The modern heating system replaced outdated fossil fuels in the housing estates, even saving tenants space using Kensa’s small shoebox heat pump.

In Thurrock, residents saw a 66% reduction in their heating and hot water bills, helping to reduce fuel poverty. In Enfield, where many tenants were struggling to pay bills of £800-£1,100, heat pumps have reduced bills to £200-£250.

District heating networks are low-carbon, and as shown in Thurrock and Enfield, low-cost, but work toward high efficiency and in high-density areas. They’re particularly popular in Denmark, where 98% of the capital is served by such a network, which just so happens to be one of the happiest countries in the world.