The use of district heating must be expanded drastically if the government is to meet its targets for carbon emissions reductions. Separately, not being able to access digital services is leading to a minority that is being excluded as society embraces the advantages brought by accessibility.
Both of these problems can be solved by using existing data connections but need new hardware in the home and need new ways of organising the companies that provide the services. By tackling both at the same time, the technological fixes can be found that will allow businesses to be built around supplying these services. Once this can be shown to work in Sheffield by building on the heat network that is already in place, it opens the door to other cities to follow suit.