Govt confirms “default” solar under FHS

New build homes will include rooftop solar “by default” under the Future Homes Standard (FHS), with the government also announcing that the FHS will be published this autumn.

The government has today (June 6) confirmed that the FHS will include the requirement to fit solar panels on roofs of new homes with 40% coverage, although “practical limits” will be considered. There will be flexibility for new homes “surrounded by trees or with lots of shade overhead”.

Housebuilders will still be expected to install a “reasonable amount of solar coverage” if they cannot meet the 40% stipulation. In the FHS consultation, published in December 2023, the previous government gave an option for no inclusion of solar.

Under the government’s plans, “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”, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) stated.

The FHS is still set to require low carbon heating in new homes, such as heat pumps. In the consultation, the Conservatives included …