New Home Standards – All New Homes to Have Solar Panels Installed as Part of The Governments Eco Plan

The government have today announced the standards to be implemented as part of the long-anticipated Future Homes Standard. The new legislation means new homes in England will now have to be built with solar panels and heat pumps as standard. From 2028, new home will feature heating provided by heat networks or heat pumps. They must also have solar panels on their roofs covering an area equivalent to 40% of the ground floor space.

Alongside this, “plug-in” solar panels are to be made available in shops within months, as part of the government’s £15 billion Warm Homes Plan to rollout solar, batteries and heat pumps across millions of existing homes.

Retailers like Lidl and Amazon, alongside manufacturers such as EcoFlow, are working with government to enable plug-in solar panels that connect to a standard mains socket without a need of an electrician to be brought to the UK market.

M&C Are Familiar: Solar PV & Battery Storage Project

Earlier this year, we published the results of our Solar PV and Battery Storage project at a local Primary School in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham and the numbers speak for themselves. Although this isn’t a domestic project the concept is identical and can be applied to UK homes in a similar way.

The school scheme, a125 kWp solar panel system along with SolarEdge inverters and a 60 kWh battery storage unit that has been running since autumn 2025, and the early results have exceeded expectations. In just the first few months of operation, roughly 25% of CO₂ was saved, and the school has already seen a 25% financial benefit.  Each year provides about 4.1% of the system’s expected lifetime financial benefit over the system’s 25+ year lifespan combined with a 7-year simple payback period.

Under this scheme, new homes in England could generate 75–80% less carbon, with solar panels and heat pumps becoming standard installations.

What This Means for You

While the Future Homes Standard focuses on new residential development, the principles are identical to what we’ve already been delivering in the education and public sector. Our Solar PV and Battery Storage project in Barking & Dagenham is proof of that.

If you’re a school, academy trust, or public sector organisation looking to explore what solar PV and battery storage could do for your buildings, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us today.