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Ministers expected to beef-up Future Homes Standard to ensure solar panels are installed on 99 per cent of new build homes from 2027
Almost all new homes built in England would need to be fitted with solar panels as standard from 2027, under rules being drawn up by the government that would slash household energy bills by around £1,000 a year, according to reports.
The Times reported this morning that Ministers were planning to introduce the new rules through the long-awaited Future Homes Standard, requiring all new homes to have solar panels that cover at least 40 per cent of a building's ground area, with a handful of exemptions for properties that are genuinely unsuitable for solar panels based on their orientation to the sun.
Around 80 per cent of new-buildings would be expected to have to meet the full solar panel requirement, while another 19 per cent would have to install a slightly lower number of panels under exemptions based on issues such as the pitch of the roof or over-shading, the newspaper said.
The rules would mean that from 2027 99 per cent of all new build homes in England would need to be fitted with solar panels.
The move is expected to add around £3,300 to the cost of building a semi-detached or terraced house, and just under £4,000 for a detached property. But the MCS Foundation estimated homeowners would be able to recoup these additional costs within four years, with an average three-bedroom, semi-detached household fitted with solar able to save more than £1,000 annually on energy bills.
Savings could increase further if energy bills rise or if households install accompanying energy storage systems to help maximise their use of self-generated clean power.
The upcoming policy announcement is expected to be followed by a new system of loans and grants to help support the installation of solar panels on existing homes in England, The Times added.
The move would represent a major victory for environmental campaigners, which have long argued solar panels should be mandatory for new build properties, given their ability to reduce energy bills and make a major contribution to the UK's net zero targets.
However, some house-builders had lobbied against the rules, arguing they would drive up prices for home-buyers and put pressure on stretched clean tech supply chains.
The rules are set to form part of the Future Homes Standard, which is expected to set out requirements for housebuilders that would cut carbon emissions from all new homes by 75 to 85 per cent compared to current regulations. In addition to requiring the installation of solar panels the standard is expected to effectively ban the installation of fossil gas boilers in new homes, providing a major boost to the heat pump and district heating markets.
Originally announced under the Conservative government, the Future Homes Standard had initially been pencilled in to apply from 2025, but it has faced numerous delays and uncertainty as well as lobbying from housebuilders over requirements they fear could push up building costs.
However, Ministers reportedly view the solar panel requirement for new homes as vital to the government's 2030 clean power mission, as well as its promise to slash energy bills which have soared in recent years on the back of soaring fossil gas prices.
The government has also set an overarching goal to install up to 47GW of solar generating capacity by the end of the decade, up from just over 17GW today.
"We believe this proposal has the benefits of ensuring that the majority of new homes will be built with solar panels but that there is flexibility for legitimate cases when reduced or no solar panel coverage is appropriate," said officials quoted in The Times.
Data published by Good Energy last summer estimated that if solar panels were fitted to all 1.5 million new homes pledged by the government during this Parliament, it could provide enough electricity to power an additional 1.17 million homes through surplus energy shared back with the grid.
The analysis also found a home fitted with solar panels could save around £313 on their annual energy bill, and that by exporting surplus power back to the grid, households could then gain another £315 a year based on the current 15p export rate.
Reports of the upcoming policy announcement were warmly welcomed by environmental and fuel poverty groups.
Greenpeace UK's climate campaigner Lily Rose Ellis described the reported plans as a "common-sense decision from the government".
"It shows the drive for net zero can slash both emissions and bills," she said. "The government must now ensure that everyone feels the benefits of cheap solar on their roofs, as well as every hospital and school, so they too can enjoy huge savings and use that cash to improve our public services.
"The government must also urgently reform the UK's energy system as a whole and stop gas from setting the price of electricity so that everyone, whether living in a new build or not, gets to enjoy the lower bills that cheap, clean renewable power can bring."
