Energy Secretary Ed Miliband says the “vast majority” of new homes in England will have to carry rooftop solar panels from 2027.

Details are to be released in the autumn.

Speaking to the BBC, Miliband says the initiative is “just common sense” and the panels will save the typical household £500 a year on energy bills.

The Home Builders Federation says it backs the principle but warns that too much bureaucracy surrounding the idea may hamper reaching the 1.5m new homes target for mid-2029 set by the government. 

Miliband says the mandatory solar panels idea will be in the Future Homes Standard, which will detail a wider plan for improving energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.

Current building regulations do not compel developers to add solar panels to new homes.

The idea is not unique to Labour – the Sunak Conservative government consulted on new regulations including a proposal that new build homes should have rooftop solar panels covering 40% or more of the building’s ground area.

Miliband has told the BBC: “The problem about the previous system was that it said you would had 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% you will still have to have some solar panels, except in rare exceptional cases.”

Asked if he worried developers would pass the cost of adding solar panels on to buyers, Miliband said he didn’t think there would be an effect on house prices.

Neil Jefferson of the Home Builders Federation says developers are “getting increasingly used” to incorporating solar panels but adds: “The government just needs to take care to make sure that it does not prescribe and mandate too much on rooftops.

“If every single home needs to be applied for on an exemption basis that will slow up the delivery of desperately-needed new homes, that administration will be burdensome.”