Ms Margie McCarthy:

Yes, it does matter. One cannot say that district heating is plug and play because the infrastructural requirements are so large in terms of the main transmission lines but for the homeowner, the oil or gas boiler could be replaced with a heat exchanger. That pumps heat into the home. The demand continues to increase if one does not have an efficient home, so it is important to have efficiency. In terms of getting the homeowner on a route to decarbonisation, a simple connection into the home is required once the network is in place. The homeowner is no longer using fossil fuels for what is a significant energy use in the home.