0% VAT on solar ends on 31 March 2027
From 1 April 2027, VAT on domestic solar, batteries and heat pumps rises from 0% to 5%. Here is what it costs, and why the real deadline falls earlier than the date suggests.
The government is putting VAT back on domestic solar, battery storage and heat pumps from 1 April 2027. Right now the rate is 0%. From that date it goes back to 5%.
Nothing about the technology changes. Nothing about the grants changes. The only thing that changes is the tax, and it is a date rather than a proposal. It was confirmed at the Budget.
What it actually costs
Five per cent sounds small until you put a number against it.
On a £7,000 solar system, 5% is £350. On a £12,000 solar and battery system, 5% is £600. On a £20,000 system for a larger house or a small commercial roof, 5% is £1,000.
If you were planning solar, a battery and a heat pump together, the extra tax runs to around £1,500.
That money does not buy you anything. It is the same system either way.
The deadline is not the date you think
This is the part most people will get wrong, so we want to be straight about it.
The 0% rate applies to work that is completed by 31 March 2027. Not booked. Not paid for. Completed.
That matters because a solar installation is not a one day job for most homes. There is a survey, a design, a DNO application where one is needed, scaffolding, the install itself, and the paperwork. Add a battery or a complicated roof and it takes longer.
So the real cutoff for a comfortable job is not the end of March. It is some weeks before that. If you want this at 0% without anyone rushing, the sensible window is to have it booked in the new year, not in March.
What happens in March
Every installer in the country is looking at the same deadline. The trade bodies have already said they expect a rush, then a cliff.
A rush is bad for you. It is when quotes get thinner, surveys get quicker, and the good installers are already full. The people who get the best work done are the ones who move before everyone else does.
The honest version
We are not going to tell you to panic.
Five per cent is worth having. It is not worth a bad installation. If you rush into the wrong system, on the wrong roof, with the wrong inverter, to save £400, you will lose that £400 many times over across the next twenty five years.
If solar was already on your list for the next year or so, bringing it forward makes sense and you will save real money. If it was not, a tax change is not a good enough reason on its own. Decide on the system first and let the VAT be a bonus.
What to do now
Get a survey booked. That is the long pole, not the installation.
Ask any installer you speak to what their lead time is in February and March. If they cannot answer that, it tells you something.
Make sure your quote states clearly what happens to the VAT if the work slips past 31 March 2027, and who carries that cost. That last point is the one to watch. A quote that goes quiet about it is a quote that has not thought about it.
Where we are
We install across Kent, London and the South East. We will tell you honestly whether a job can be finished before the deadline when we survey it, and if it cannot, we will say so rather than take the booking and hope.
