Heat Trust is operated by Heat Customer Protection Ltd as the Scheme Administrator. We're:

• A small not-for-profit private company, limited by guarantee and without share capital

• Registered in England and Wales under company number 09456667 

• Entirely funded by the registration fees we charge for membership of our Scheme

• Governed by, and accountable to, a Board of Directors and an independent stakeholder Committee

• Sponsored by The Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE), which was instrumental in our inception and from whom we buy in support services. 

Our non-executive Board oversees our company strategy and finance. Our stakeholder Committee provides independent oversight of our Scheme and recommends Scheme changes to the Board for approval. The Committee's membership includes consumer representatives from Citizens Advice and Consumer Scotland, as well as non-voting representation from the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ), Scottish Government and Ofgem. Our Articles of Association and Company Bye-Laws set out the Board's and Committee's functions, powers and duties. 

We contract out our Scheme's audit activities to independent auditors. We have an agreement with the Energy Ombudsman to provide independent dispute resolution to consumers on our registered heat networks. If needed, we can also convene independent disciplinary panels to consider any significant and persistant Scheme non-compliances.

Although we're sponsored by the Association for Decentralised Energy, we're an independent organisation from the ADE and we're not a trade association. Heat Trust acts as an independent consumer champion for heat networks. We don't lobby on behalf of either our Scheme participants or heat suppliers generally.

You can find details of our staffing and expenditure in our Annual Reports.