Fire safety rules could make solar panels ‘unviable’ on smaller homes

If house builders are unable to meet this requirement, they may have to undertake more expensive alternative measures.

In its response to the consultation, The Housing Forum said: “All our members want to ensure that people are safe in their homes, and to minimise any risks from fire arising from solar panels on roofs.”

However, it added that “the impact of the new guidance on the ability to install solar on smaller roofs needs to be carefully modelled to ensure that it does not inadvertently or unnecessarily restrict the use of solar panels on smaller roofs and on terraced housing in particular”.

The trade body, whose members include social landlords, house builders and manufacturers, suggested that other steps could be taken to reduce the risk from solar panel-related fires. These include higher installer competence standards, and product standards around inverter and connector safety and maintenance requirements.

If solar panels became “impractical” on smaller roofs, it added, this could mean that bills remain higher for occupants, social landlords are unable to reach an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of Band C in more of their stock, and less of the UK’s power is generated from solar, slowing efforts to decarbonise the grid and requiring more land to be used for solar in fields.

Anna Clarke, director of policy and public affairs at The Housing Forum, said: “The proposed new rules would significantly reduce the number of solar panels that can fit on a roof.

“This will mean that people in small terraced houses find they cannot fit a useful number of panels.

“It will hit our social landlord members’ efforts to reduce tenants’ bills by fitting solar panels and will mean that landlords (both private and social) are less able to reach the EPC C requirement, or will have to spend more money on less effective measures.

“There is clearly a policy clash here with the Future Homes Standard – which expects the large majority of new build homes to have solar equivalent to 40% of their footprint.

“Reducing the capacity for rooftop solar will also reduce the contribution of solar to the UK’s decarbonisation efforts, and mean that more panels will need to be built on fields and other locations if they cannot be built on roofs.

“We urge the HSE to work closely with colleagues who have been developing the Future Homes Standard, and colleagues within DESNZ [the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero] who are overseeing the Warm Homes Plan to find ways to ensure safety alongside a future that maximises the potential for rooftop solar.”

Ms Clarke raised her concerns with Martin McCluskey, minister for energy consumers, during a discussion at the Housing 2026 conference on 25 June.

Mr McCluskey admitted he was not aware of the HSE consultation. He said: “A lot of this sits within MHCLG [the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government] and not with DESNZ, and that is the problem.

“I’ve often thought that maybe this role should be a joint role with MHCLG, because there are so many dependencies. But let me take that away and look at it.”

He added: “We obviously want to make it as quick and easy for people as possible to get these technologies rolled out, [but] we obviously have to do it in a safe and responsible way.”

The HSE declined to comment for this article. The Building Safety Regulator was also approached for comment.