Overshadowing the Sunshine Bill

Paul Bainbridge, Technical Director

Paul’s Greenprints   

You’d think that when a Bill is put forward in Parliament that aims to bring Britain a “sunnier future” thanks to a commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability in the construction sector, it’d give the team here at The FES Group a warm glow and fill our lives with sunshine.

Sadly, not always the case.

During the cold winter of 2024, Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, Max Wilkinson, put forward the New Homes Solar Generation Bill, which came to be known – before it was chucked out after the second reading less than a month later – as The Sunshine Bill.

Sounds lovely, we admit.

Now, as construction compliance and sustainability specialists, it’s professionally within our interests and ethics for Bills like this to at least gather a good bit of momentum and discussion, if not get passed. But what frustrated us here at The FES Group was that Max clearly hadn’t read the most up-to-date Building Regulations before suggesting that work was done to essentially change them. Had he done this, he’d know that what he was proposing, was for the main part, already happening.

To save you googling The Sunshine Bill and falling down a political rabbit hole in the process (though we’ve hyperlinked it for your convenience should you find yourself with time on your hands), in summary what the Bill proposed was that in order to lower (and steady) the cost of energy for customers, take pressure off the National Grid, and reduce emissions to protect our fair planet in the process (all things we can obviously get behind as construction and sustainability specialists), all new homes should be built with a standardised amount of Photovoltaic (Solar Panels) on their roofs.

This amount was proposed as the equivalent of 40% of the building’s ground floor area, and this was to be mandated across the board, with no exceptions even for builds that offered other energy saving systems or technology in their bid to become more energy efficient. There was seemingly a lot of support for rooftop solar panels being factored into the design and build of new homes, with a recent survey with YouGov showing 82% of the public in favour. In addition, a survey in 2023 showed that 97% of CPRE supporters support rooftop solar on new buildings and would back any Bill that gets behind this. So, Max had in fairness done his market research, if not his actual research.

When The Sunshine Bill was rejected, this figure of 40% was the sticking point. It just didn’t seem feasible or achievable, and in addition, posed additional problems for housebuilders – which we’ll come on to.

This figure wasn’t the reason we were more than a little bit surprised at the contents of the Bill, however, because if you’re going to make a proposal to change building regulations, you’d be best advised to see what’s already in there. So, had Max’s team looked at the regulations and requirements under Part L 2021, they’d have noticed that when building any new home heated by a gas boiler, housebuilders are already required to place PV on those roofs at the 40% expectation. It’s not a fixed mandated figure – as proposed by the Sunshine Bill – but the principles still apply, because either you do have the roof space or you don’t!

We’re not affiliated, backed, or particularly in support of any political party here at The FES Group, but we do roll our eyes when politicians of any persuasion swan in and try to break new ground where it’s already been well and truly broken by trusted industry professionals.

But let’s not make this political, and stay on track by answering a key question, here. If the 40% rule is already being adhered to on new homes with gas boilers, why was a Bill proposing a mandate thrown out of Parliament on that fateful day back in January earlier this year?

A few reasons.

The first reason is – as you’d expect – the availability of roof space. New home designs including a hipped roof, a Dorma roof, or the inclusion of windows such Velux, significantly reduce available space to place solar panels. Another problematic example comes in the form of semi-detached houses where the front elevation is a gable rather than eaves. There are so many ways to limit roof space, it seems. This is all of course before we even think about the fact that at least some of the roof space available on the top of people’s houses will likely be facing North or North-West, meaning that any solar panel placed in those locations is going to be doing very little in the way of generating any kind of energy from sunshine at all. At this point, placing solar panels on new homes is less of a benefit to customers in reducing their bills, and more of a tick-box to the housebuilders in claiming they’ve done their bit to attempt the generation of cleaner energy.

And the second reason? Even when we take away the availability of roof space to place solar panels, issues with the escalating cost of materials and labour make the mandate for every home to be fitted with so much PV a big ask, and that’s before we even look at the stress and strain on the supply chain and how that will affect the completion of new builds.

The good news for the planet, the people living on it, and any politicians with a commitment to renewable energy, however, is that when Part L 2025 is issued as part of the Future Homes Standard later this year, 40% PV coverage on the roofs of new builds could likely apply to any homes built with an air source heat pump (note that designing out this requirement is all but impossible), rather than just those with a gas boiler. In other words, this Bill is coming in, even if the Bill isn’t coming in!

A little bit of background information for you, here – just so you can get a more rounded picture of how politics feeds into the thoughts of what we do here at The FES Group.

Back in 2006, The Labour Government in the UK introduced what was known as the Zero Carbon Homes policy. Specifically, the Chancellor at the time (Gordon Brown) announced in his Pre-Budget Report in December 2006 that, “From 2016, all new homes will be zero carbon”. This was all part of a broader climate change and sustainability agenda, of course.

In essence, the policy aimed for all new homes built from 2016 onward to have zero net carbon emissions from energy use (mainly heating, lighting, and ventilation). The policy was to be implemented in phases through the tightening of the Part L Building Regulations, with stepped improvements in 2010, 2013, and 2016. All sounded solid.

The initiative gained momentum under the Code for Sustainable Homes (introduced in 2007), which provided a framework for assessing and certifying the environmental performance of new homes. However, even with all the positive plans, backing, and steps in the right direction, the Zero Carbon Homes target was scrapped in 2015 by the subsequent Conservative government.

You can understand why we don’t exactly hold our collective breath when new Bills are announced.

If you follow our FES Group blogs quite closely, you’ll know that we know building regulations inside out, we know when regulations are going to change, and in some cases, we’ve known what’s going to become regulation before it’s even been regulated! But despite that statement being a potentially cracking new tagline for the company, we’re not here to boast. We’re here to educate and inform our clients, and we do our best to keep it fairly light along the way to hold that interest.

If our peers or competitors – or political persons of any persuasion – take issue with anything we say or share, we’re here for a conversation. That’s how we make progress, so we always welcome discussion. With that in mind, as an organisation with a bit of clout in our industry, we propose that if we simply reduced that figure in The Sunshine Bill of 40% to 20%, not only would this make it much easier to find effective roof space on new builds, but it would also halve the cost of materials and halve the burden on the supply chain, too. All whilst still making a positive stride in the right direction for UK homes to go solar. The team here at The FES Group have pushed for this regulation for over a year, so when The Sunshine Bill (with its well-intentioned suggestions) was dismissed with a call that a figure of 25% would be much more realistic, achievable, and effective, it took everything we had to hide the ‘told you so’ looks on our faces.

But regardless of who has the idea and who puts forward the changes, the use of solar panels on new homes will surely only ever be a positive addition to sustainable construction practices. If we’re realistic and smart, then between The Sunshine Bill and Part L 2025 later this year, we might just get a mandate that has a practically and politically sunny outlook.