The Dutch Parliament approved the “Law for municipal instruments for the heating transition”

The measure will probably also pass the Senate.

In this law, municipalities have the right to disconnect a neighbourhood from gas infrastructure when a more affordable and sustainable alternative is present. This is to prevent maintaining a gas grid for a limited number of people, for example a neighborhood where 2000 households say yes to a district heating network and 5 households say no. This law reduces gas grid costs and prevents socialisation of costs due to very few “stubborn” natural gas users. In addition, experiences from following through on neighbourhood heating transition plans, point to the necessity of this legislation to speed up the rollout of district heating. This is due to the improvements on the business case for the investors for the district heating network (because more district heat customers can be found in the same area).

102 out of 150 MP voted in favour of this law, despite the large conservative majority in the Netherlands. This is probably due to the addition to the law of a minor revision of heating tariffs which enable households connected to district heating, to lower their tariffs significantly in 2025.