The Government has announced that as part of the Future Homes Standard (FHS), building regulations will be amended to explicitly promote the installation of solar panels on new homes for the first time, subject to practical limits.

The main barriers to mandating solar panels on all new buildings are grid costs and grid delays. Although not yet fully resolved, the Government have made real progress to fixing those issues, particularly through changes to the connection process, and planning reforms that ensure grid infrastructure funding goes further and faster.

If grid connections are timely and not cost prohibitive, solar for new buildings is deliverable and the solar ambition is easy to support. Currently, this will not be the case and when electrification is required at scale, even less so.

The Government must also ensure planning is reformed so that councils cannot oppose solar on the grounds of being out of character. Otherwise, there is a risk that there will be penalties on non-delivery, for opposition that councils set. Some may view this as an improbably outcomes but now when set against the existing backdrop of council’s setting affordable housing requirements and then charging council tax on empty homes, despite there being no affordable housing provider to take on the property.

What should we expect?

The Government have said that solar panels will be included in the FHS, leading to installation on ‘the vast majority of new build homes and saving the typical existing UK household around £530 a year in energy costs’. 

The expectation is that PV coverage is equivalent to 40% of the building’s floor area. There will be some flexibility for new homes surrounded by trees, with significant shading overhead or difficulty in accommodating the minimum requirement due to roof design. 

The HBA proposed alternative technology being able meet the FHS technological element, such as heat networks, ground source heat pumps or thermal battery storage but there appeared to be a sole focus on PV, despite the consultation asking about renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The wording will be important because as read, individual homes will need to benefit from the energy generated by PV, not the site. This creates a concern that councils will mandate batteries; a cost burden industry cannot absorb. HBA suggested that the Government could  fund new build batteries, taken from the money wasted when switching off wind turbines due to overgeneration, or the wording be firmed up so that LPA’s would not be able to penalise builders. 

Any deviation from the rules will need to be accepted and signed off by Building Control and the Government must stay aware of Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) who bring in penalties for not meeting the standard, even if an exemption is in place, Failure to meet higher energy efficiency standards on new homes have become a revenue generator for councils hiding behind their calling of a climate emergency. An emergency which ignores 99% of their existing housing stock. 

Don’t harm builders or making the housing crisis worse

If we want to avoid harming local builders, delaying tens of thousands of homes and putting a leash on growth, the Government needs to mirror the recommendations we achieved in relation to electric vehicle charging. This would mean implementing a cost cap on solar installations which fully funds the panels and includes a nominal charge for grid connection and reinforcement. The energy sector would pay the difference, or if no connection is available, they would cover the entire connection cost when one is available.

No housebuilder should be in a position where they are only able to provide connections for part of their site, receive no written promises on the date of connections and grid reinforcement, pay for temporary connections and then again for permanent ones, or be forced to fund infrastructure that the energy sector profits from in perpetuity. Yet this is the present situation and as we electrify all new buildings, more projects will be impacted.

Another tax on housebuilders is also a tax and burden on the entire construction industry, because contractors are paid by clients, who with shrinking levels of funding, pay less, pay late or scrap projects entirely.

It is worth noting that there has been no impact assessment on the cost of grid reinforcement and no recognition of delays. In 2023, HBA warned that there would be a substantial impact on supply and affordability of homes. In 2025, with higher build costs, longer planning delays and housebuilders going out of business, we double down on our concerns.

Labour is trying to fix the mess the Conservatives left them, but without fair caveats to this policy, it will only weaken the broader construction industry and make the 1.5million home target even harder to hit.

Rico Wojtulewicz, NFB Head of Policy and Market Insight