A three-year programme has fitted solar panels to more than 1,000 council homes, 200 more than planned. The council says tenants could save up to £300 a year.

Solar panels have been fitted to more than 1,000 Brighton and Hove council homes in a three-year programme that finished this summer. That takes the total number of council homes in the city with panels past 1,400.

The council says residents could save up to £300 a year on their electricity bills (Brighton & Hove City Council, 18 August 2026).

It did more than it set out to do

The programme was announced on 30 November 2023, with work starting that December. The plan then was around 800 council-rented houses and bungalows over three years, and the saving quoted was up to £250 a year (council, 30 November 2023).

It finished with more than 1,000 done. That is roughly 200 homes beyond the original number, and the estimated saving has gone up by £50.

Councillor Gill Williams, cabinet member for housing, said: “Energy costs are understandably a big concern for many residents, and this huge programme of solar panel installations is bringing benefits for households across the city.”

Which homes were chosen

The council did not spread the work evenly. Installations went to council-rented houses and bungalows picked on three grounds:

  • an Energy Performance Certificate rating of D or lower
  • electric heating, which is expensive to run
  • areas of the city where fuel poverty is more likely

That is deliberate targeting of the homes with the highest bills, and it is the same rule the council set out when it announced the work in 2023.

What is left to do

The council’s own numbers show the size of the remaining job. A cabinet report in January 2025 set out the EPC ratings across its housing stock (Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund, cabinet, 23 January 2025):

EPC band Council homes
A 7
B 1,436
C 9,446
D 1,216
E 76
F 22
G 1

That is 12,204 homes, of which 1,315 sat below band C. The average rating across tenanted properties was estimated at a SAP score of 74.4, which is band C.

The same report put planned investment in sustainability measures in council homes at around £30 million over five years.

Bar chart of Brighton and Hove council homes by EPC band in January 2025: A 7, B 1,436, C 9,446, D 1,216, E 76, F 22 and G 1, with 1,315 homes below band C
Graphic by The Brighton Times

Those figures date from January 2025, so they sit part way through the solar programme rather than after it.

A separate retrofit programme runs to 2028

Solar panels are not the only route. The council also bid for the government’s Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund, run by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

That scheme is aimed at bringing up to 151 council homes currently below band C up to at least EPC C. Cabinet agreed in January 2025 to award a contract of up to £2.4 million to E.ON Energy Solutions, running from April 2025 to September 2028.

The grant is capped at £7,500 a home, and the council has to find at least half the eligible costs itself.

The community hall that got a set too

Sureserve Energy Services, which carried out the installations, fitted a solar panel system at St George’s Hall in Moulsecoomb in July. It was provided as a social value benefit of the contract rather than paid for by the hall.

Nicky Mullee, the hall’s manager, said: “One of our dreams for St George’s Hall was to get solar panels and it is amazing to now have them installed, we are over the moon.”

What it means for you

If you are a council tenant, this particular programme has now finished, so there are no further installations under it. Homes were selected by the council on rating, heating type and area, not by application.

If you want to know your home’s rating, EPCs are on the government’s register and are free to look up at Find an energy certificate.

If your council home is rated below C, the retrofit programme running to September 2028 is aimed at up to 151 properties. That is a small share of the 1,315 recorded below band C in January 2025, so it will not reach every home in that group.

Our earlier coverage of council housing pressures in the city is here: Brighton temporary accommodation hits record in 2026.

Sources