The Worthing Heat Network, being developed and operated by low-carbon energy company Hemiko — sometimes mistakenly referred to as “Hemico” — is effectively the beginning of a new utility beneath Worthing. Instead of every building having its own gas boiler or individual heat pump, large numbers of buildings can eventually receive heating and hot water from one interconnected system.

And although most Worthing residents cannot connect to it yet, the long-term ambition is considerably bigger than the pipes currently running through the town centre.

Hemiko has committed to offering a connection to every building in Worthing by 2050.

So how does it actually work?

At the heart of the system is Worthing's new Energy Hub, positioned beside the High Street multi-storey car park.

Initially, the hub uses a large air-source heat pump. Rather than installing a separate heat pump on every building, the central system extracts heat from the outside air and uses it to heat water.

That hot water is then pumped through heavily insulated underground pipes running beneath Worthing's streets. Connected buildings take heat from the network for their heating and hot water requirements.

In simple terms, think of it as a giant communal central-heating system for the town.

The difference is that the source of the heat can change over time without replacing heating equipment in every connected property.

Hemiko says the network could eventually capture heat that would otherwise be wasted locally, with potential future sources including sewage treatment, data centres and even heat extracted from the sea.

That flexibility is one of the more interesting aspects of the scheme. Once the pipes exist, Worthing is not permanently tied to the technology being used at the Energy Hub today.

It's already heating some of Worthing's biggest buildings

This is no longer simply a proposal.

The first phase was officially launched in February 2026, with the new infrastructure supplying low-carbon heat to major town-centre buildings.

The first group includes Worthing Town Hall, Worthing Hospital, the Assembly Hall, Portland House, Worthing Museum & Art Gallery and the Connaught Theatre.

The second phase extends the network towards Splashpoint Leisure Centre and the Pavilion Theatre, completing what the council describes as the main spine of the town-centre network. Works continued through 2026, including the pipe installation towards Splashpoint during June and July.

From there, the intention is for branches of the system to spread into more commercial buildings, new developments and eventually existing homes.

Why is Worthing doing this?

Heating buildings is one of the more difficult parts of removing fossil fuels from everyday life.

Replacing thousands of gas boilers individually would require thousands of separate installations. Historic buildings, blocks of flats and large facilities such as hospitals can make that particularly difficult.

Worthing Borough Council says it identified a heat network in 2019 as the most economic and efficient way of decarbonising its civic quarter. It estimates that connected buildings can reduce emissions associated with heating and hot water by around 90%.

The first phase alone is expected to remove around 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

For a town with a large collection of older public, commercial and residential buildings, putting the infrastructure beneath the streets also avoids having to cover every suitable building with individual external heat-pump installations.

But what does any of this actually do for ordinary residents?

This is perhaps the most important question.

For somebody living in Durrington, Broadwater or Goring today, the honest answer is: probably very little immediately.

The first stages have deliberately concentrated on large buildings because connecting them gives the network a substantial guaranteed heat demand from the beginning.

The council currently says residential properties closer to the town centre are expected to begin being offered connections over roughly the next five to ten years, depending on their proximity to the network and demand from other properties nearby.

Longer-term, however, there are several potential benefits.

The possibility of more stable heating costs

A heat network can use several local sources of energy rather than relying entirely on natural gas.

Hemiko argues that this should make customers less exposed to sudden changes in international gas prices and allow increasingly cheap or wasted sources of heat to be introduced as the network grows.

The council also states that, in locations where heat networks are appropriate, they can be around 40% cheaper than installing individual air-source heat pumps in every building.

That figure needs some context, however.

It does not mean a Worthing household joining the network is guaranteed to see its heating bill fall by 40%.

It is primarily a comparison between the overall cost of using shared heat-network infrastructure and installing individual heat pumps building by building. The eventual price paid by residents will depend on tariffs, operating costs and the terms offered when domestic connections become available.

There are now greater protections over those prices

One concern historically associated with heat networks is that customers generally cannot shop around between heat suppliers in the same way they can change their gas or electricity supplier.

Heat networks are effectively local monopolies: once connected, most consumers receive heat from the company operating that particular network. Ofgem explicitly recognises this issue.

That makes the question of pricing particularly important.

Worthing Borough Council says its agreement with Hemiko requires the company to provide low-carbon heat at a fair price, alongside customer-service commitments.

There has also been a significant national change.

Since 27 January 2026, Ofgem has begun regulating heat networks in Great Britain, with rules covering areas including fair pricing, billing transparency, customer service, complaints, vulnerable customers and security of supply.

So while joining a heat network does involve becoming dependent on that particular network, the sector is no longer operating with the comparatively limited consumer protection it once had.

Cleaner air could be one of the less obvious benefits

There is another impact which may be more noticeable as the system becomes larger.

Thousands of individual gas boilers release combustion products around the town every day.

As buildings stop burning gas locally, those emissions disappear from their boiler flues. Both the council and Hemiko argue that expansion of the network should therefore contribute to improved local air quality as well as reducing carbon emissions.

One heat network serving hundreds or eventually thousands of properties also makes future technology changes easier.

If a better low-carbon source becomes available in 15 years' time, theoretically it can be connected to the network centrally rather than requiring thousands of homeowners to replace their heating systems again.

And then there is the £500 million figure

The scale of the project is considerable.

The council received more than £7 million of government grant funding, which helped unlock around £40 million of initial investment from Hemiko. Hemiko says it intends to invest around £500 million in Worthing by 2050 as the network expands.

The first phase had already created 48 local jobs and put £3.8 million into the local supply chain by early 2026.

The council's longer-term projection is that the expanding network could support as many as 500 jobs by 2050.

Hemiko has also established a community fund associated with the project, which the network's website said had invested £60,000 in local initiatives by the time of its latest published figure.

Of course, Worthing has already paid one price for it: disruption

For many residents and businesses, their first experience of the Heat Network wasn't lower carbon emissions.

It was temporary traffic lights.

The first phase required significant excavation through parts of the town centre, bringing road closures, diversions, fencing, parking restrictions and disruption to businesses and motorists. Even at the network's official launch, project partners acknowledged the months of disruption experienced by residents.

The complaints appear to have had an effect.

For phase two, Hemiko changed its construction approach following feedback from businesses, residents and visitors. Where possible, underground tunnelling was chosen instead of continuous open trenches through areas including the promenade and Steyne Gardens.

The council said only around 16% of the phase-two pipe route was expected to require work beneath roads and pavements.

It is an important part of the story because a project designed to benefit Worthing over decades still has to coexist with businesses that need customers today.

Will people be forced to connect?

The published ambition is to offer a connection to every Worthing building rather than automatically connect every property.

Hemiko describes its long-term vision as offering everyone in the town a low-carbon heat-network connection if they want one.

For existing homeowners, therefore, the real test will come when domestic connections begin to be offered more widely: what will connecting cost, what tariff will be offered, how will it compare with keeping or replacing an existing heating system, and what contractual commitments will come with it?

Those questions will ultimately determine whether the network becomes something residents actively want rather than simply infrastructure running beneath their street.

A project Worthing may not fully understand for another 20 years

The easiest way to misunderstand the Worthing Heat Network is to view it as one giant construction project.

It isn't really.

The trenches, pipes and Energy Hub are effectively the first layer of a new energy system for Worthing, intended to grow gradually for decades.

Today it heats civic buildings and some of the town's largest institutions. Next come more businesses and developments. Eventually, the plan is for ordinary houses and flats to be able to join.

Whether it fulfils the promises being made for it will depend on something much simpler than carbon targets or engineering diagrams: whether it remains reliable, whether residents are genuinely offered a fair price, and whether the long-term benefit proves worth the disruption experienced while it is built.

If that happens, the miles of pipe disappearing beneath Worthing today could eventually become one of the town's most important pieces of infrastructure — despite most of us rarely seeing it again once the road is resurfaced.