ABSTRACT
This chapter examines response to the challenges through case studies of UK cities where carbon and energy saving strategies include plans for district heating and improved building insulation. In the UK, privatisation and liberalisation of energy, and erosion of the powers and resources of city councils pose considerable challenges for governance of innovation in sustainable heat. The chapter argues that the ensuing project developments need to be understood in relation to the UK variant of neo-liberal political economy, and its instruments of governance. The UK 1995 Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA) served as a catalyst to more ambitious action. The Act required local authorities to identify measures for a reduction of thirty per cent in home energy consumption and associated carbon emissions between 1997 and 2007. A key factor in overcoming the doubts of local politicians and officers seems likely to have been the fortuitous availability of a capital contribution under the UK Community Energy Programme (CEP).
