The Government has confirmed that the final Future Homes Standard will be published “this autumn,” and that the Option 1 in the industry consultation, namely including mandatory solar PV, would be the preferred option taken forward.
Ministers “confirmed that solar panels will be included, leading to installation on the vast majority of new build homes,” said the Government in a statement, adding that homes will also have “low-carbon heating, such as heat pumps and high levels of energy efficiency.”
The more “minimal” option 2 in the consultation did not require solar PVs therefore would appear to not be the option chosen. The Government said that “Building Regulations will be 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.”
The Government statement continued: “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 Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists (CIAT) welcomed the announcement, calling the requirement for solar panels on most new homes “a win-win,” as part of the Government’s decision to move forward with this “more ambitious version of the Future Homes Standard.”
However, the institute warned that with current timelines, and allowing for a transition period, the Future Homes Standard is “unlikely to come into force until mid-2026, meaning that thousands more new homes will be built to outdated performance standards, incompatible with a net zero future.”
The CIAT concluded: “This Government is clearly comfortable moving fast to deliver priorities such as planning reform. CIAT urges the Housing Secretary and Energy Secretary to treat strengthening Building Regulations with the same urgency.”