Miliband: I'll force solar panels onto ‘vast majority' of new homes

Telegraph

a day ago

Developers will be forced to install solar panels on the 'vast majority' of new homes, Ed Miliband has said.
The Energy Secretary said plans for a massive increase in rooftop solar power were 'just common sense' and should become 'almost universal' across the country.
Four in five new-builds will reportedly be required to have solar panels covering 40 per cent of their ground area under new proposals, while 19 per cent would be allowed to have slightly fewer because of exemptions such as those relating to roof pitch.
Mr Miliband claimed the move could save a typical homeowner £500 a year with their energy bills – despite industry fears it will add thousands of pounds to developers' costs.
It comes days after he defeated a separate attempt by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to slash funding for the warm homes scheme, a £13.2 billion project to upgrade housing insulation and install other energy saving measures.
Warning that the current proportion of new build homes with solar panels, at 40 per cent, was not high enough, he said: 'It's got to be much, much higher than that.
'It's got to be almost universal. There will be rare exceptions where solar panels won't be on, if they simply will make no difference.
'But for the vast, vast majority of homes, homes will be built, the solar panels will be there – saving something like £500 for the typical homeowner.
'It's just common sense.'
Mr Miliband's comments, in a BBC interview, come a month after Downing Street confirmed the panels should be installed on as many new properties as possible, amid speculation that ministers will make them a mandatory requirement for developers by 2027.
Changes to regulations will be laid out in the Future Homes Standard, due to be published this autumn.
The previous Conservative government considered a proposal that would have mandated rooftop solar panels to cover 40 per cent of a building's ground area or equivalent.
Mr Miliband said: 'The problem about the previous system was that it said you would have to have a certain percentage of coverage of solar panels, but if you couldn't achieve that percentage, you didn't have to do anything at all.
'Under our plans, we are not going to say that. We are going to say even if you can't hit 40 per cent you will still have to have some solar panels, except in rare, exceptional cases.'
The policy is expected to add between £3,000 and £4,000 to the cost of construction, but supporters claim it would save owners more than £1,000 on their annual energy bills.
Labour's manifesto included a pledge to build 1.5 million new homes over the course of the Parliament.
It comes after Miliband called for car parks across Britain to be turned into solar farms.
However, there have been a number of high profile fires recently that have been attributed to the panels.
Last month, a faulty solar panel was blamed for a fire at a maternity hospital which led pregnant women and babies to be evacuated from the building in Bristol.
They were also said to have probably been the cause of a fire that severely damaged a £1.5 million home in Dorset during the same month.