Solar panels for housing associations, FAQs
Honest answers to the questions our customers actually ask. Last updated for 2026.
How much do solar panels cost per home in social housing?
A typical individual social home takes a 1.5-4 kW system (4-10 panels) costing roughly £3,500-£7,500 fully installed, depending on archetype and access. Delivered at programme scale across a batch of streets, cost-per-home falls because of shared mobilisation, scaffolding and standardised design. Communal/block arrays on landlord supplies are priced per block (£10,000-£135,000). We price every archetype individually from a representative survey.
What is the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and how does it work?
It's the government's flagship grant for decarbonising social homes in England, the successor to the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF). Wave 3 has £1.29bn-plus confirmed for 2025-2028 (with a later £100m uplift), delivered through a Challenge Fund route (minimum ~100 eligible EPC D-G properties) and Strategic Partnerships for delivery at scale. It's match funding, not full cost, and grant must be defrayed by 31 March 2028. We produce bid-ready, PAS 2035-compliant packages for it.
Do social housing solar panels actually reduce tenant energy bills?
Yes, when designed for tenant self-consumption. We size dwelling-level systems to the resident's daytime load so they use the generation directly, typically saving £150-£350 a year on electricity. The benefit model is agreed with you up front: tenants self-consume, and the surplus is exported under the Smart Export Guarantee (taken by the landlord or a split-benefit tariff partner). Tenant benefit is the explicit purpose of the Warm Homes funding.
What is PAS 2035 and does solar have to comply?
PAS 2035:2023 is the British Standard governing whole-house retrofit of existing dwellings, it requires a retrofit assessment, a retrofit coordinator owning a medium-term improvement plan, and a fabric-first, moisture-aware approach. Any grant-funded social-housing retrofit (Warm Homes Fund, ECO4, etc.) must comply, and solar is delivered inside that process. Installers must also be TrustMark-registered and MCS-certified. PAS 2035:2023 came into full effect on 30 March 2025.
How does solar help us hit EPC C by 2030?
New Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards require every social-rented home in England to reach EPC band C by 1 April 2030. Rooftop PV improves a dwelling's SAP score and is often the most cost-effective single measure for moving a home from EPC D to C, especially homes that fabric measures leave just short of band C. There's a £10,000-per-property spend cap, with a deferral route where a home still can't reach C after that spend, so prioritising the cheapest EPC-C tips (often solar) matters.
Who gets the Smart Export Guarantee income, the landlord or the tenant?
It's a design decision, agreed before installation. The most tenant-friendly model lets residents self-consume the generation (the bill saving) while the landlord registers the array for SEG and takes only the surplus export income, which can subsidise the wider programme. Specialist tariffs such as Octopus Tenant Power split the benefit between landlord and tenant. We set the model out clearly so residents understand exactly what they get.
How do you deliver solar across thousands of homes at once?
Archetype-led, batch delivery. We survey a representative sample of each house type, design a standard PAS 2035-compliant solution per archetype, then deliver street-by-street in batches with one mobilisation per area. Standardised scaffolding, access and designs drive cost-per-home down and make a multi-thousand-home programme deliverable inside the 2030 window.
Can we install solar on flats and high-rise blocks?
Yes, and the easiest win is the communal/landlord supply (lifts, lighting, pumps, corridor heating), which can self-consume 80%+ of generation. A block roof serves many homes, so cost-per-home is efficient. For higher-risk buildings (18m+/7 storeys) any roof work engages the Building Safety Act 2022 regime, and we apply SPF1981 v3 fire-safety design and a structural survey as standard.
How do we procure social-housing solar compliantly?
Through an established framework rather than direct award. We hold places on social-housing decarbonisation frameworks, Fusion21's decarbonisation framework, Procurement for Housing's Decarbonisation & Retrofit framework, and equivalents, each giving you a compliant call-off under the Procurement Act 2023, pre-vetted PAS 2035/2038 delivery, and audited pricing. You get speed and full compliance without a standalone tender.
What grants and funding are available beyond the Warm Homes Fund?
The £13.2bn Warm Homes Plan is the overarching programme. ECO4 and ECO4 Flex (extended to 31 December 2026) can fund measures on the lowest-rated homes via energy-supplier obligation and local-authority referral. The Affordable Homes Programme supports designed-in solar on new build and regeneration. SEG provides ongoing export income. We blend these into a single funding stack per programme.
Do residents have to do anything, and will it disrupt them?
Disruption is minimal. A dwelling-level install is typically 1-2 days, with the only outage being a short final connection. We handle resident communication, consent and access scheduling as part of the programme, this is one of the biggest delivery risks at scale, so we plan it carefully, with extra care for vulnerable residents in sheltered and supported schemes.
What about damp, mould and Awaab's Law, does adding solar create risk?
Solar itself is a roof-and-electrical measure, not a fabric intervention, so it carries low moisture risk. But we deliver it inside the PAS 2035 whole-house process, which considers ventilation and moisture as a system, important where solar accompanies insulation. Awaab's Law (damp-and-mould response duties for social landlords) makes a fabric-first, moisture-aware retrofit approach essential, and our PAS 2035 process is built around it.
Does solar pair with heat pumps and insulation in a retrofit?
Yes, and it should. Fabric-first is the rule: insulate and ventilate, then electrify heat with an air-source heat pump, then add solar PV to offset the heat pump's running cost and the home's baseload. Solar is what makes an electrified, heat-pump-heated social home genuinely affordable to run for the tenant. We model the whole-house package, not solar in isolation.
What roof types and conditions can take solar in older stock?
Most pitched tile/slate roofs and flat roofs on social stock accept PV with the right fixing system. The constraints are roof condition, orientation/shading, and asbestos in pre-2000 buildings (which must be managed under CAR 2012, often a re-roof first). Our archetype surveys flag roof condition early so re-roofing or alternative measures are planned in, not discovered mid-programme.
How long does a stock-wide solar programme take to deliver?
It depends on scale, but a typical multi-thousand-home programme runs 18-48 months, phased by archetype and area, aligned to grant-defrayal deadlines and the 2030 EPC C target. Surveying and design happen up front; physical install runs in continuous batches. We sequence to spend grant on time and prioritise the homes where solar delivers the cheapest EPC-C uplift first.