Political correspondent
Political producer
Builders will be required to fit solar panels to the “vast majority” of new build homes in England under changes to be published this year, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has said.
The regulations will require developers to add panels unless the buildings fall under certain exemptions such as being covered by shade.
Speaking to the BBC, Miliband said the move was “just common sense” adding that solar panels would save the typical household £500 a year on their energy bills.
The Home Builders Federation said it backed fitting more panels but cautioned against introducing “burdensome” paperwork which it said could harm government efforts to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029.
The rules will be included in the Future Homes Standard, which will detail a wider plan for improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
The government says it will be published in autumn but there will be a transitional period for developers to adjust to the regulation changes.
Current building regulations do not compel developers to add solar panels to new homes.
The last Conservative government consulted on new regulations including a proposal that new build homes should have rooftop solar panels covering the equivalent of 40% of the building’s ground area.
However, they were voted out of power before their proposed changes could be implemented.
The Labour government is now promising to introduce rules which would mandate developers to add solar panels to all new builds.
Asked if the government would stick to the 40% figure proposed by the previous Conservative government, Miliband said the details would be set out in the autumn.
“The problem about the previous system was that it said you would had to have a certain percentage of coverage of solar panels but if you couldn’t achieve that percentage you didn’t have to do anything at all.
“Under our plans, we are not going to say that. We are going to say even if you can’t hit 40% you will still have to have some solar panels, except in rare exceptional cases.”
Miliband said the number of homes with solar panels had to be “much, much higher” adding: “It’s got to be almost universal.”
Asked if he worried developers would pass the cost of adding solar panels on to buyers, Miliband said he didn’t think there would be an effect on house prices.
Neil Jefferson, head of the Home Builders Federation, said an estimated two in five new homes had solar panels and that the industry was “getting increasingly used to incorporating solar panels within the building of new homes”.
“The government just needs to take care to make sure that it does not prescribe and mandate to much on rooftops.”
“If every single home needs to be applied for on an exemption basis that will slow up the delivery of desperately-needed new homes, that administration will be burdensome.”
Chris Hewett, from the trade body Solar Energy UK, said local authorities would have to be “vigilant” to ensure developers were meeting their obligations but added that it would be “quite easy to enforce”.
He also said he did not expect many homes to be exempt, estimating that 90% of new build homes would have to comply with the new rules.
Asked if the sector had the skills to keep up with demand, Mr Hewett said: “We are certainly aware that we need to train more people… that’s something we as an industry are working on.”
The announcement comes a week after the government ditched a planning rule in order to make it easier for people to install heat pumps in their homes.
Increasing solar power is one way the government hopes to reduce the country’s carbon emissions.
The UK is legally committed to reaching its net zero target by 2050, meaning the UK must cut carbon emissions until it removes as much as it produces, in line with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
In 2022, emissions from residential buildings made up 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.
The government’s advisory body, the Climate Change Committee, has said the UK will not be able to meet its targets “without near complete decarbonisation of the housing stock”.
According to analysis by Carbon Brief, power generated by solar sites in the UK hit record highs this year, partly driven by particularly sunny weather.
Between January and May, the level was 42% higher than the same period in 2024 and marked a 160% increase over the last decade.
However, solar power remains the UK’s sixth largest source of electricity, behind gas, wind, imports, nuclear and biomass.
The net-zero goal was set by the previous Conservative government and retained by Labour.
However, recently Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said the target is “impossible” to achieve “without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us”.
Reform UK have called for the target to be scrapped entirely, arguing it has led to higher energy bills, while the Greens and Liberal Democrats want the government to hit the target faster.
The Liberal Democrats claimed credit for the government’s move to mandate solar energy generation technology for new homes.
Lib Dem MP Max Wilkinson, who has been attempting to change the law to require solar on newbuild homes, said the news would “help us fight the cost-of-living crisis by lowering people’s energy bills while reducing carbon emissions too”.
