The bill obliges the Secretary of State to create regulations that require new homes to be fitted with photovoltaic (PV) generation equipment. It leaves detailed technical standards, penalties and a schedule of exemptions to secondary legislation, and gives local planning authorities authority to process exemption applications.
This is a targeted attempt to lock low-carbon generation into the housing stock at the point of construction. If implemented, it will change how developers design roofs and site footprints, reallocate upfront costs within housing delivery, and trigger demand across the solar manufacturing and installer sectors.
The short text leaves many operational details for the regulations, so the practical impact will depend heavily on how ministers define terms like “cost-effective” and set compliance rules.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill directs the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring solar PV on homes built from 1 October 2026 and to set minimum standards and penalties. Those regulations must require PV covering at least 40% of a new home's ground floor area and must include exemption routes and compliance rules.
Who It Affects
Large and small homebuilders, architects and roof-product suppliers, the solar installation and manufacturing industry, local planning authorities (which will decide exemption applications), and purchasers of new homes who may face development cost pass-throughs.
Why It Matters
This would be one of the first UK-wide statutory duties explicitly tying new housing to mandated rooftop (or equivalent) solar capacity, creating near-term demand for PV and forcing changes to design, planning and procurement practices across the housebuilding sector.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill does not itself install anything; it places a statutory duty on the Secretary of State to make regulations that set the actual obligations for new-build housing. Those regulations must say that homes built from 1 October 2026 carry solar PV systems, with ministers required to set standards for what counts as compliant and to create penalties for non-compliance.
The bill therefore creates a two-step process: the Act gives the power and outlines core requirements, while the regulations will supply the technical detail and enforcement mechanics.
Regulations must insist on PV systems that together cover at least 40% of a new home's ground floor area, but ministers are given explicit flexibility to define key terms (for example, what exactly qualifies as a PV system or what counts as 'cost-effective'). The secondary legislation may also vary requirements for different situations and can include transitional arrangements, which will be important for projects already in planning or under construction when the rules land.The bill sets out specific exemption categories: where the building cannot physically accommodate the 40% coverage, where it is not cost-effective to install PV, flats in buildings over 15 storeys, and where other forms of renewable generation are used.
For physical constraints the regulations must still demand installation 'to the maximum possible extent'—so the measure is not an all-or-nothing ban but a presumption in favour of as much onsite generation as practical. The text also creates an administrative route: people may apply to local planning authorities for exemptions, and those authorities are charged with deciding applications.Parliamentary oversight of the detailed rules is retained: the bill requires the regulations to be laid as a statutory instrument subject to approval by both Houses.
The Secretary of State must consult appropriate stakeholders before making the regulations, but the bill leaves the timing, scope and content of that consultation to ministerial judgment. That means the real-world shape of obligations—how performance will be assessed, how penalties will work, what 'cost-effective' means—will be resolved after enactment and will determine how burdens fall across the sector.
The Five Things You Need to Know
Regulations must require solar photovoltaic systems covering at least 40% of a new home’s ground floor area.
The obligation targets homes built from 1 October 2026, subject to the forthcoming regulations.
Exemptions expressly include flats in buildings exceeding 15 storeys and buildings where installation is not ‘cost-effective’; where physical constraints apply, regulations must require PV to the maximum extent possible.
Regulations are to be made by statutory instrument and cannot be brought into force unless a draft has been laid before and approved by resolution of both Houses of Parliament.
The Act, if passed, will extend to England and Wales and, as drafted, 'comes into force' on the day it is passed, leaving regulatory timing and transitional mechanics to ministers.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Duty on Secretary of State to require PV installation
This section creates the core obligation: ministers must make regulations requiring solar PV on new homes built from a specified date. The provision sets out three mandatory elements for the regulations—minimum coverage (expressed as 40% of ground floor area), minimum standards for compliance, and penalties for breaches—while leaving the development of technical detail to the regulations themselves. Practically, this places the policy design squarely with the executive rather than in primary legislation, so industry stakeholders will need to engage at the regulations stage to shape how the 40% test and standards are operationalised.
Exemptions and the local planning authority role
Section 2 requires the regulations to include partial and full exemptions for specific circumstances: physical incapacity to host PV at the 40% level, flats above 15 storeys, cost-effectiveness considerations, and the installation of other renewable generation. Importantly, where a physical constraint prevents full compliance the regulations must still demand installation to the 'maximum possible extent,' creating a graded compliance regime. The section also mandates an administrative pathway: individuals may apply to the local planning authority for exemptions and LPAs must decide those applications—giving planning bodies new operational duties and discretionary judgment on technical and financial questions.
How regulations are made and what they can cover
This section prescribes that regulations under the Act will be made by statutory instrument and requires the Secretary of State to consult appropriate stakeholders beforehand. The power to define terms such as 'solar photovoltaic system' and 'cost-effective' is explicitly included, and the regulations may include different rules for different situations plus transitional or saving provisions. Because ministers can vary provision and set definitions, the consultation and drafting choices will determine whether the law produces precise technical requirements or a looser performance-based regime.
Geographic extent, commencement and short title
The Act is drafted to extend to England and Wales; it also provides that the Act 'comes into force on the day on which it is passed' and gives the short title. That drafting leaves a separation between the Act's entry into force and the later operational date targeted in Section 1 (homes built from 1 October 2026), meaning ministers will need to use the regulatory process to reconcile timing for compliance, transitional arrangements for projects underway, and enactment logistics.
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Explore Energy in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Owners and occupiers of new homes: where PV is installed effectively, buyers will see lower running costs and greater energy resilience, particularly given rising household electricity consumption.
- Solar manufacturers and installers: a statutory requirement for new builds will create a sustained, predictable pipeline of demand for PV modules, mounting systems and installation services.
- Local economies and construction subcontractors: increased onsite electrical and roofing work creates near-term jobs and local service demand tied to new housing developments.
Who Bears the Cost
- Private and volume housebuilders: they will shoulder upfront installation costs, rework design and procurement, and face compliance obligations and potential penalties if regulations are not met.
- Small or bespoke developers and self-builders: fixed-percentage coverage targets can be disproportionately expensive or technically difficult for small projects, squeezing margins or deterring small-scale development.
- Local planning authorities: LPAs gain responsibility to adjudicate exemption applications and will need technical capacity to assess physical constraints and 'cost-effectiveness' claims, creating administrative burden without accompanying resource in the bill.
- Housing associations and social landlords: absent grant support or allowances in the bill, social providers face additional capital costs when delivering new homes, which may affect affordability or development programmes.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between a hard, early mandate to lock low-carbon generation into new housing (which accelerates decarbonisation and market demand) and the risk that a one-size-fits-all, area-based requirement will be costly, technically awkward for dense and high-rise developments, and administratively burdensome—potentially undermining housing delivery or prompting narrow exemption routes that defeat the policy’s intent.
The bill sets a strong policy direction but delegates nearly every practical choice to secondary legislation. That produces two risks: first, the key decisions that determine cost, feasibility and enforcement—how to measure the required coverage, how to test 'cost-effectiveness', what technical standards are acceptable, and how penalties operate—will be made after the Act, possibly with limited Parliamentary debate beyond the affirmative resolution procedure.
Second, the 40% requirement is stated in relation to 'ground floor area', an unusual metric for solar generation that typically correlates with roof area or installed capacity (kW). Translating a ground-floor percentage into a coherent rooftop or facade PV target is technically messy for split-level houses, terraced rows, apartments and mixed-use plots.
Operational questions are also unresolved. The exemption for 'other forms of renewable energy' could encourage developers to substitute non-solar measures that are cheaper but deliver different grid and carbon outcomes; the 'cost-effective' carve-out is undefined and could become the main route for avoiding the rule if ministers set a permissive standard.
The local planning authority exemption route gives LPAs frontline discretion but no funding mechanism for the extra technical assessments they will now have to make. Finally, the Act’s wording on commencement (the Act comes into force on passing) sits awkwardly alongside the substantive trigger for the requirement (homes built from 1 October 2026), so developers and planners will need clear transitional regulations to avoid legal uncertainty for projects in flight.
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