Renting in Manchester: what tenants can do about solar

Who rents in Manchester, and who decides

Renting is the normal way to live in Manchester. At the 2021 Census, 32.3% of households rented from a private landlord and 29.5% were social tenants of the council or a housing association. Only 37.2% owned their home, outright or with a mortgage (ONS Census 2021, table TS054). Across England, by comparison, 32.5% of households owned outright on their own.

For solar, tenure decides almost everything. Whoever owns the roof decides whether panels go on it, pays for them and arranges the work. Whoever pays the electricity bill gets the kWh. In a rented home those are usually two different people, and that split is the root of the problem.

Owners can start with the roof yield explorer and the price figures. The rest of this page is for everyone else.

Private tenants and the 2030 EPC deadline

Every privately rented home in England has to reach EPC band C by 1 October 2030. The government set this out in its Warm Homes Plan in January 2026 (Warm Homes Plan). For a tenant, that turns solar from a favour into a reasonable question.

Solar panels can raise an EPC rating, because the assessment counts electricity generated on site. They are one option among several. Insulation, glazing and heating changes also lift a rating, and a landlord will weigh them against each other. You cannot insist on panels. You can ask how the landlord plans to reach band C, and whether solar is part of the plan.

Manchester's figures show where the pressure falls. Across the city 64% of homes with an EPC already reach band C or better, well above England's 53.3% (ONS, records to March 2025). That average hides a split by type of home. 78.6% of flats reach band C, but only 48.3% of terraced and semi-detached houses do. If you rent a terrace in Moss Side or a semi in Burnage, the odds that your home still needs work before 2030 are much higher than in a city-centre flat.

Two more local figures put this in context. Fuel poverty touched 12% of the city's households in 2024, where the England figure was 10% (DESNZ sub-regional fuel poverty data). And the council reckons the city needs 78,850 retrofitted homes by 2030 (Manchester City Council). In a city where most households rent, many of those homes will be rented ones.

Start by looking up your home's certificate on the GOV.UK energy certificate register. It shows the current band and a list of recommended improvements, which sometimes includes solar.

The grant route for privately rented homes

One grant in Manchester can pay for solar on a rented home: the Warm Homes: Local Grant, which the Greater Manchester Combined Authority runs for all ten boroughs. For a privately rented home the rules are narrow. The home must be at EPC D or E (F or G only with a registered exemption). The household living there must qualify through one route, for example a listed means-tested benefit, or gross household income under £36,000. And the landlord must support the GM Good Landlord Charter (GMCA). The scheme's measure list includes solar PV and battery storage, but what actually goes in follows a retrofit assessment of the home.

The headline amounts apply to owner-occupiers and to a landlord's first property. A landlord's later properties are treated differently, so the landlord should read GMCA's page for the current terms before applying.

If the home does not qualify, there is no grant for solar. Households that can pay get none, anywhere in England (Warm Homes Plan). A caller offering a solar grant to every tenant on a street is selling something. The funding guide covers every real route open in Manchester.

Council and housing association tenants

Council and housing association tenants get panels, if at all, through the landlord's own programme. The Warm Homes: Local Grant does not reach social housing; it is limited to owner-occupied and privately rented homes (GMCA).

Social tenants are a big group here: 11.4% of Manchester households rent from the council and 18.1% from a housing association or another social landlord (Census 2021). Landlords of that size tend to plan improvements across whole streets or blocks, not one home at a time.

What you can usefully do:

• Ask the landlord, in writing, whether your home or block is in a planned retrofit or solar programme, and when.
• Ask for your home's EPC band, or look it up yourself on the register.
• If you belong to a residents' group or tenants' panel, ask the landlord to report on its plans for the estate.
• Do not fix anything to the outside of the building without written permission. Your tenancy agreement sets the rules.

Plug-in balcony panels

Since 27 August 2026, plug-in solar on a home has counted as permitted development in England, so in most cases it needs no planning application (Planning Portal; SI 2026/896). These are small panels that hang on a balcony or wall and plug into an ordinary socket.

The rules have limits that matter in Manchester:

• No timber. Plug-in panels lose their permitted development status if mounted on a wooden balcony, wall or enclosure, or on any timber-clad surface. Check what your balcony is made of first.
• Projection. A panel fixed to a wall or balcony can project 0.2 m at most where the wall borders a highway, and 0.4 m at most anywhere else.
• Conservation areas. Across the city's 35 conservation areas, walls, balconies and roof enclosures that front a highway are ruled out for panels (Manchester City Council).
• Listed blocks. The new rules for blocks of flats exclude listed buildings.

Planning is only one permission. A tenancy agreement or a lease can still forbid fixing anything to the outside of the building, and in a block the managing agent may have rules of its own. Ask the landlord in writing before buying a kit. The planning rules also say nothing about whether a given product is safe for your wiring, so follow the maker's instructions and ask the landlord how they want it handled.

Keep expectations in proportion. A balcony panel is small and usually hangs upright, so it makes far less than a roof system and trims daytime use rather than covering it. Flats dominate the city centre. In Deansgate ward 86.2% of households live in a flat, and in Piccadilly it is 76.5% (Census 2021). The guide for flats also covers shared roofs.

How to raise it with your landlord

A short, specific written request works better than a general one. Send it by email so there is a record.

1. Look up the home's EPC and note the band and any recommendations.
2. If the home is below band C, mention the October 2030 requirement.
3. If the home is at D or E, check whether your household qualifies, for instance through a means-tested benefit or income under £36,000. If it does, point the landlord to GMCA's page for the Warm Homes: Local Grant; the landlord must also support the GM Good Landlord Charter.
4. Ask whether the landlord would consider solar, and say how you use power in the day, for example if you work from home.
5. For a plug-in panel, ask for written permission and describe the kit and where it would go.

A message along these lines covers it:

"Our home's EPC is band D. I understand rented homes must reach band C by 1 October 2030. Are you planning work to meet that, and would you consider solar panels as part of it? I work from home, so we would use much of the power during the day. I would also like to put a small plug-in solar panel on the balcony, which is not timber. Could you confirm in writing whether that is acceptable?"

If the landlord agrees to roof panels, the checks are the same as for an owner. The installer checklist and the North West cost figures apply to any Manchester roof, rented or not.