This site is operated by SEO Dons Ltd (Company No. 16766013, registered at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ). It is an independent information site focused on solar for social-housing landlords: housing associations, local-authority landlords, and the wider social-housing sector. It does not install solar and does not endorse an installer; enquiries sent through the form get a reply by email. That focus is deliberate. Social-housing solar is not commercial solar with a different customer on the invoice. It is a distinct discipline built around tenant benefit, fuel poverty, the EPC C target, grant funding, and the PAS 2035 retrofit process, and it rewards people who understand that landscape rather than treating it as a side line.
Why social housing specifically
The country's social-rented stock, roughly four million homes, sits at the sharp end of the retrofit challenge. Under the government's confirmed 2030 EPC C target, social rented homes in England must reach EPC C or higher on reformed EPCs against any one metric by 1 April 2030, tenants are among the households most exposed to fuel poverty, and the regulator, the Decent Homes Standard, and Awaab's Law all push hard on warmth and condition. Solar is one of the most cost-effective measures in that toolkit, but only if it is designed so the resident feels the saving rather than the landlord simply pocketing export income. The site focuses here because getting that right takes sector knowledge, not just installation skill.
How a good programme works
A programme works best archetype by archetype, not house by house. The usual route is to survey a representative sample of each house type in a landlord's portfolio, design a standard PAS 2035-compliant solution per archetype, then deliver street by street in batches, one mobilisation per area, standardised scaffolding and access, repeatable designs. That is how cost per home drops and how a programme covering thousands of homes becomes deliverable inside the 2030 window. This site is independent of any single panel or inverter manufacturer, so its guidance is not tied to a supplier relationship.
Everything starts with modelling. Before any quote is sought, model the SAP and EPC uplift per archetype so it is clear exactly which homes solar tips from band D to C, and set the tenant-benefit model, who self-consumes and who takes the export, before sizing a single system. The programme then sits inside the full PAS 2035:2023 process, with a retrofit assessment and a retrofit coordinator owning the whole-house plan, and is procured compliantly through established decarbonisation frameworks under the Procurement Act 2023 rather than relying on direct award.
What to check in an installer's accreditations
This site is not an installer and holds no accreditations. When appointing an installer for grant-funded social-housing work, ask to see MCS certification (the basis for Smart Export Guarantee eligibility), TrustMark registration (needed for PAS 2030/2035 and grant work), PAS 2030:2023 installer certification, and NICEIC registration for electrical work to BS 7671. Ask also about ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 management systems, and whether workmanship cover is insurance-backed so it survives even if a contractor does not. Each can be checked against the issuing body.
What a good programme needs
Plenty of installers can put panels on a roof. Far fewer can sequence delivery to spend grant before the defrayal deadline, structure the benefit model so tenants genuinely save money, and run the whole thing inside PAS 2035 without creating damp, return visits, or unhappy residents. A good adviser will also say honestly when a roof is not suitable, when a re-roof has to come first, or when fabric measures should be prioritised over solar on a given archetype. It is better to scope a programme properly than to start a programme that does not deliver for the landlord or the tenant.