Sweltering temperatures from the London Underground will soon be keeping homes warm in the winter months in a new project to harness its heat.

Warmth from the tube’s Northern line will be piped into hundreds of homes and businesses as part of a revolutionary heating scheme in Islington.

The search for alternative sources of renewable heat gained pace after the Government’s pledge to ban gas-fired boilers from new-build homes from 2025.

The plan for north London is one of a growing number across the UK to warm homes using “waste heat” from factories, power plants, rivers and disused mine shafts.

The Islington heat network already keeps about 700 homes warm by channeling heat created in the Bunhill Energy Centre.

It generates electricity, into local council housing, schools and a leisure centre.

The tube project could pave the way for district heating schemes across the capital to warm homes with cheap, low carbon heat from underground lines.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) estimates there is enough heat wasted in London to meet 38 per cent of the city’s heating demands.

Tim Rotheray, director of the Association for Decentralised Energy, told the Guardian district heating schemes were increasing across the UK as a low-cost method of tackling the climate crisis.