The government is considering introducing a price ceiling for city heating schemes to protect tenants and homeowners against “excessively high delivery charges”.

Dozens of city heating schemes are currently on ice because of uncertainty about the costs. City heating ties tenants and homeowners to a monopoly provider and the previous government had suggested partially nationalising the networks to ensure costs remain affordable.

Climate minister Sophie Hermans has told parliament in a briefing that it is crucial the networks, which often use either excess heat from industry or from waste incinerators, are built as part of the transition to greener energy.

It is up to the government and energy firms to come up with a way to keep such systems affordable, she said. As yet, funding for keeping prices down still has to be found and regulations need to be drawn up for a possible price ceiling.

MPs are due to debate legislation to manage collective heating systems, including possible public ownership, later this autumn.