Working people stand to save hundreds of pounds off their energy bills as the government confirms new build homes will have solar panels by default, unleashing a rooftop revolution. 

Ministers are publishing the Future Homes Standard this autumn and have confirmed today (Friday 6 June) that solar panels will be included, leading to installation on the vast majority of new build homes. 

Illustrating the benefits of solar panels, a typical existing UK home could save around £530 a year from installing rooftop solar, based on the current energy price cap. 

This means today’s new proposals could significantly cut energy bills for the recipients of new build homes, tackling the cost of living for aspirational young families and new house buyers. 

Under proposed changes, new homes will also have low-carbon heating, such as heat pumps and high levels of energy efficiency, cutting people’s energy bills and boosting the nation’s energy security with clean, homegrown power, in line with the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change. 

To deliver these aims, the proposed Future Homes Standard would see building regulations amended to explicitly promote solar for the first time, subject to practical limits with flexibility in place for new homes surrounded by trees or with lots of shade overhead.   

From switching on the kettle to cooking dinner and doing the weekly wash, families will now be able to seize the benefits of powering their lives with clean, renewable energy from the very first day in their new home, with cheaper energy bills that put more money back in their pockets.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: 

Solar panels can save people hundreds of pounds off their energy bills, so it is just common sense for new homes to have them fitted as standard. 

So many people just don’t understand why this doesn’t already happen. With our plans, it will. 

Today marks a monumental step in unleashing this rooftop revolution as part of our Plan for Change, and means new homeowners will get lower bills with clean home-grown power.

Housing and Planning Minister, Matthew Pennycook said:      

As part of the government’s Plan for Change to build 1.5 million homes, we are maximising the use of renewable energy to cut people’s bills and power their homes. 

The Future Homes Standard will ensure new homes are modern and efficient with low-carbon heating, while our common-sense planning changes will now make it easier and cheaper for people to use heat pumps and switch to EVs so they can play their part in bolstering our nation’s energy security.

After legislation came into force last week, more homeowners will now be able to install a heat pump within one metre of their property’s boundary without having to submit a planning application, unlocking even more savings and cutting unnecessary paperwork for working people.  

With figures from Octopus showing that 34% of those who order a heat pump are discouraged or drop out for reasons attributed to the need to submit a planning application, this change will help families who may have less space outside their home make the upgrade to clean power.  

The first quarter of 2025 saw a record number of applications to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, up 73% from the same quarter in 2024. 

The scheme provides households with up to £7,500 off the cost of a heat pump, which can save families around £100 a year by using a smart tariff effectively.

Chris Hewett, Chief Executive, Solar Energy UK, said: 

The solar industry is very glad to hear that almost all new homes will be fitted with solar power from under the Future Homes Standard. Making solar panels a functional requirement of the Building Regulations will cut energy bills, lower carbon emissions, help drive polluting natural gas off the grid and improve our nation’s energy security, too.

Aadil Qureshi, Co-Founder and CEO, Heat Geek, said: 

Installing a heat pump, particularly alongside solar panels is an amazing way for homeowners to save hundreds of pounds on their energy bills and create a more comfortable home. The simplification of planning rules will help millions of homeowners, particularly in normal family homes in towns and cities, take advantage of this technology.

Charles Wood, Deputy Director of Policy (Systems) at Energy UK, said: 

The addition of rooftop solar to the Future Homes Standard is welcome and necessary in ensuring that homes built today are fit for the future. Building homes to the right standards now will deliver immediate benefits of warmer, more comfortable, and more cost-efficient homes, preventing the need to retrofit these properties later at higher costs to the customer.

This change, alongside wider reforms to planning processes and network connections, will reduce bills for people in new build properties while also giving the industry confidence to invest in increased manufacturing and installer training as demand increases, creating jobs and bringing down technology costs for everyone.

Ensuring our future energy security relies on producing more British power, the electrification of our economy and cutting waste. The energy sector continues to deliver energy efficiency improvements and install low-carbon heating, generation, and transport technologies for households and businesses across the country.

Chris O’Shea CEO of Centrica, said: 

The age of solar is well and truly upon us, with millions of households up and down the country already benefiting from generating their own free electricity from the sun. Our research shows that customers can shrink their energy bills by 90% when they combine solar and battery with the right energy tariff, and this announcement means even more households can soak up the savings—and the sunshine—by generating their own clean, free electricity. And with the Future Home Standard expected in the Autumn, momentum is building behind Great Britain’s rooftop revolution.

Ed Lockhart, Chief Executive, Future Homes Hub, said: 

The Future Homes Standard represents a major opportunity to build a generation of higher performing new homes. Moving to all electric homes, with photovoltaics, a better fabric system, better ventilation and smart technologies to optimise the way new homes use energy means that new homes will not only be better for the planet but also more comfortable, healthier to live in and cheaper to run for customers.

The Future Homes Hub is ready to support this mission, bringing homebuilders, social housing providers, suppliers, financial institutions and other experts together to work with government departments to find the best solutions to secure the benefits of the Future Homes Standard whilst accelerating housing delivery, crucially helping smaller developers to get the right support at the right time.

Nigel Banks, Zero Bills Director at Octopus Energy, said:  

People deserve lower energy bills, and adding solar panels to a house as it’s built is an incredibly effective way to slash costs from day one.

With the right smart tech and storage added to the mix, some households won’t have to pay a penny for energy.

We’re delighted to see the Future Homes Standard enable house builders to now build the homes of the future.

Matthew Hart, Director of Residential New Build at E.ON Next, said: 

Ensuring that every new home comes equipped with solar panels is a vital step forward for the UK. Our vision at E.ON has always been to make clean, affordable energy the standard, not the exception, and this move will empower homeowners to take control of their energy use and keep bills low from day one. It’s exactly the kind of bold, practical action we need to build a more secure, low-carbon future for everyone.

Mark Wakeford, National Chairman, National Federation of Builders, said: 

Solar panels on new homes make sense because they lower bills and progress the clean energy revolution we so desperately need. Credit must also be given for recent announcements on grid investment and connection reforms, as these were important challenges to recognise and solve for a rooftop revolution to happen in practice.

Charlotte Lee, CEO, Heat Pump Association, said: 

The HPA welcomes clarity on the publication timeline for the Future Homes Standard and confirmation that all new homes will be required to have low-carbon heating, such as heat pumps. Coupled with solar PV, highly efficient heat pump installations will result in low consumer energy bills and increase the UK’s energy security. This announcement provides a clear signal to the heat pump sector to scale up delivery in terms of workforce and manufacturing to meet the anticipated growth in the market and demonstrates the government’s commitment to decarbonise buildings.

Garry Felgate, Chief Executive of The MCS Foundation, said:  

These plans by the government are a huge boost to the UK renewables sector, to our efforts to meet net zero, and in reducing energy costs for households.   

This announcement clearly shows that clean energy in the UK is the future. Maximising renewable energy technologies can benefit households by reducing bills as well as enhancing our national energy security.

Trevor Hutchings, Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association (REA) said: 

The growth of solar power has been one of the UK’s biggest renewable energy success stories, demonstrating without a doubt that we don’t have to choose between lowering our emissions and lowering household energy bills. 

Today’s announcement – which the REA has long campaigned for – takes this one step further – not only enabling thousands of future homeowners to experience the benefits of affordable and clean power, but supercharging growth in the British renewable energy industry and driving forward our energy transition.

Notes to editors

Future Homes Standard 

The changes outlined today will maximise the use of solar energy through the Future Homes Standard.   

In 2023, the previous government proposed that new build homes would either need solar panel coverage equivalent to 40% of the building’s floor area or none at all. 

This approach would have allowed for too many exemptions and no solar being installed on these developments.  

The government is intending to bring forward rigorous proposals, that if developers cannot meet 40% coverage, they would still be required to install a reasonable amount of solar coverage. 

Under this proposal, it would be a functional requirement of the Building Regulations that new homes, with rare exceptions, are built with renewable electricity generation. In the vast majority of cases, we expect this would be solar panels.    

We are working with industry to set the technical detail ahead of publishing the final Future Homes Standard this Autumn.     

The Future Homes Standard will also see homes built with low carbon heating such as heat pumps and heat networks.    

Solar 

The £530 a year saving is based on government’s published Home Energy Assessment tool, which allows the user to produce an estimate of the bill savings they could expect from solar given the characteristics of their home. 

The figure is the potential savings for a home and is included to illustrate the benefits of solar panels. An estimate of the bill savings for a Future Homes Standard home will be included in the final impact assessment published in Autumn.   

The figures are based on a typical 3.5 kW south-facing installation using the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) methodology. 

The costs and savings individuals experience will be affected by factors such as how often they heat their home, the precise technical details of their installations, and future energy prices.  

The savings displayed are based on the April 2025 price cap. As energy prices change, so will the estimates of savings. 

Domestic heat pumps 

The changes to permitted development rights, which came into force on Thursday 29 May in England, cover: 

• removing the 1m boundary rule, enabling air source heat pumps to be installed within 1m of the property boundary
• increasing the size limit of the heat pump for dwellinghouses from 0.6m³ to 1.5m³
• doubling the number of heat pumps permitted per detached dwellinghouse, from 1 to 2
• allowing for air source heat pumps that can be used for cooling as well as heating – facilitating the role out of air-to-air models – and providing consumers more choice

Modern heat pumps are generally perceived as quiet and typically no louder than a fridge. When installed under a permitted development right, they must also comply with a noise assessment methodology which includes an upper noise limit assessed at the nearest neighbouring habitable room window or door, as part of the Microgeneration Certification Scheme Planning Standard.

There were a total of 11,256 applications to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme between January and March 2025, which was up 73% from the first quarter of 2024.