Solar funding for renters and landlords

Private tenants

If you rent from a private landlord

In England, Warm Homes: Local Grant covers privately owned homes, which includes homes rented from a private landlord. The household's income and the home's EPC rating are what count. Because the work is to the landlord's property, the landlord has to agree, and councils set their own terms for rented homes.

In Wales, Warm Homes Nest is open to private tenants as well as owners, on the same benefit and health routes. Again, the landlord's permission is needed for work to the property.

A tenant can't usually borrow through the Warm Homes Loan Scheme for a rented home, because the government describes it as for owner-occupied homes. And a tenant can't fit solar panels to a landlord's roof without consent, however the work is paid for.

If your landlord is reluctant, it can help to show them that the means-tested schemes pay for the work, and that it improves the property's EPC rating.

Keep a copy of anything you and the landlord agree, including who will be home for the assessment and installation visits. Councils and the Nest team will usually need to arrange access with whoever lives in the home, so it helps if both of you know who their contact is.

Social tenants

If you rent from a council or housing association

Social housing is funded differently. Warm Homes: Local Grant is for privately owned homes, so it doesn't cover social housing. Instead, social landlords bid for funding through the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund for improvements to their stock. The Boiler Upgrade Scheme also excludes social housing.

So if you rent from a council or housing association and would like solar or other improvements, the route is your landlord. Ask whether your home is in a planned programme of work. From 2027/28, the Social Housing Fund and the Local Grant are due to merge into one area-based scheme, which may change how programmes are organised.

Any work to a social home is arranged by the landlord. So if a firm contacts you offering scheme-funded solar, check with your landlord before agreeing to anything.

Landlords

If you let a home

As a private landlord, you can't apply for the Local Grant on your own account: eligibility rests on the tenant household's income and the home's rating. If a tenant is eligible, the council will want your agreement and may set conditions for rented homes.

For heat pumps, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme is open to property owners, including landlords, through an MCS-certified installer. It doesn't pay for solar. The zero VAT rate applies to installing solar in residential accommodation, which includes homes you let.

For solar itself, outside the means-tested schemes, the decision is a commercial one about the property, and the loan scheme, as the government describes it, is for owner-occupied homes. Ask a lender directly if you are unsure whether any product suits a let property.

Who gets the benefit

Bills, exports and who gains

In a rented home, the tenant usually pays the electricity bill, so the tenant gains most from electricity the panels generate and the household uses. Export payments under the SEG go to whoever holds the export tariff, and arranging that is something to agree between landlord and tenant before the panels go up.

Write it down. A short written agreement covering who owns the panels, who maintains them, who holds the export tariff and what happens at the end of the tenancy prevents most disputes. The installation's MCS certificate should stay with the property.

For more on export payments, see export payments.

If the tenancy ends, the panels stay with the property, and so does the MCS certificate. A new tenant, or the landlord, may then need to arrange a new export tariff in their own name. Writing that into the agreement now saves an argument later.

Tenants should also know that improvements paid for by a scheme don't change the rent rules on their own; any rent change follows the tenancy agreement and the law that applies to it.