The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word OVERHEADS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
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More clues leading to the result OVERHEADS
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Heating and lighting, say" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case heating and lighting, say = overheads.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does OVERHEADS mean?
OVERHEADS noun- The expense of a business not directly assigned to goods or services provided.
- The items or classes of expense not directly assigned to goods or services provided.
- Any cost or expenditure (monetary, time, effort or otherwise) incurred in a project or activity, which does not directly contribute to the progress or outcome of the project or activity.
- Wasted money.
- A smash.
- The ceiling of any enclosed space below decks in a vessel.
- A compartment above the seats for stowing luggage in a passenger aircraft.
- The system of overhead wires used to power electric transport, such as streetcars, trains, or buses.
- Data or steps of computation used only to facilitate the computations in the system and not directly related to the actual program code or data being processed.
- (by ellipsis) An overhead throw.
- An overhead projector.
- A sheet of transparent material with an image used with an overhead projector; an overhead transparency.