No 10 has no immediate plans to subsidise the cost of plug-in solar panels which go on sale on Thursday, but suggested local authorities and charities would be able to do so.
The panels, which are plugged directly into a mains socket like any other device and then placed on balconies and outdoor spaces, are officially made legal on Thursday and will be stocked by major retailers priced at up to £600.
Asked by The i Paper if subsidies would be available for poorer households, energy minister Martin McCluskey appeared to leave the door open, saying there were no plans “at the moment”.
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Plug-in solar panels go on sale – what you need to know
Caption: Solar panels on the roof of a home. The plug connecting the panels and the house can be seen on the right. March 2015 Long Beach, California
Photographer: Maureen P Sullivan
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New rules mean that people can now buy plug-in solar panels online and in shops.
Retailers will begin selling them from Thursday, meaning solar power can run into the home network using an ordinary plug.
What you need to know
A kit can produce up to 800W of power, enough to generate up to 20 per cent of an average home’s electricity, officials say.
This should equate to savings of around £110 annually on bills. As they appear on shelves, ministers say prices could start off higher, but they expect them to average out at around £400-£600.
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Who will sell them?
Argos has confirmed it will sell the kits from Thursday and Amazon is expected to follow suit soon.
Caption: York,England-October 2nd,2011:A new modern hanging Argos sign with web address visable in background.Argos is the largest-goods retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland with over 800 stores.It lets it customers browse for goods from it\\’s comprehensive catalogues !
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Caption: Sun setting behind a row of electricity pylons
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Other retailers, including Currys, B&Q, Screwfix and Wickes have committed to stocking the plug-in panels.
Caption: Solar photovoltaic panels from solar company Renogy, being installed as part of a residential off-grid solar system, in bright sunlight, San Ramon, California, September 10, 2018. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
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Why are they only on sale now?
The sale of the technology was previously restricted because of safety and wiring standards.
The legal change follows rigorous, independent safety checks which show the panels are safe, according to officials.
Can everyone have one?
It depends on your property and its rules. You may still require consent from landlords, building owners, councils, freeholders, planning permission or listed building consent.
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Officials have advised people to check if any permissions are required for their home before buying or installing the techology.
world
The young Maga women whitewashing Trump’s presidency
Caption: President Trump’s aide Natalie Harp listens as US President Donald Trump announces Dulles International Airport renovations in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on July 29, 2026. US President Donald Trump unveiled on Wednesday a $20 billion plan to rebuild and renovate Washington Dulles International Airport. (Photo by Ken Cedeno / AFP via Getty Images)
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The make-up of Donald Trump‘s inner circle has come under scrutiny after US Senator Jon Ossoff remarked on the President’s close relationship with his executive assistant, Natalie Harp.
The episode has highlighted how Trump has surrounded himself with young, perfectly groomed Maga women in the White House.
Karoline Leavitt
Leavitt has been perhaps the most prominent of these women as White House press secretary. She recently announced she would step down at the end of August to focus on her family.
Caption: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and US President Donald Trump watch Oz ‘Oz the Mentalist’ Pearlman perform during the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, DC, on July 24, 2026. The 2026 WHCA Dinner was originally scheduled for April 25 at the Washington Hilton, but was rescheduled and relocated after an alleged gunman breached security. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP via Getty Images)
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Upon her appointment to the post, she became known for her combative style, quick thinking and pushing false claims. She was often described a Trump’s “attack dog”.
Margo Martin
Martin, communications adviser and special assistant to Trump, has been tipped as a possible replacement for Leavitt. She is the President’s leading content creator, often posting photo dumps and reels of events she has attended with Trump.
Caption: BEDMINSTER, NJ – AUGUST 11: Former President Donald Trump and Margo Martin his deputy director of communications at the 1st tee during LIV Golf Bedminster- round 1 on August 11, 2023 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Caption: WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 20: Margo Martin, Special Assistant to the President and Communications Advisor, attends a reception honoring Black History Month held by U.S. President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House on February 20, 2025 in Washington, DC. The Black History Month celebration comes as Trump has signed a series of executive orders ending federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and cutting funding to schools and Universities that do not cut DEI programs. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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She was accused of “whitewashing and sanitising” Trump’s Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin by Azza Cohen, Kamala Harris’s official White House videographer.
Anna Kelly
Kelly is also in the running to replace Leavitt, who she has worked under as White House deputy press secretary.
The 29-year-old is a former beauty queen with a master’s in political management, and has followed Leavitt in attacking journalists and defending Trump.
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly (Photo: The Scott Jennings Show/ Salem News Channel)
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Caption: (L/R) US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, White House aide Natalie Harp, and US President Donald Trump attend a dignified transfer solemn event for US service members killed during operations in the Middle East, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on July 22, 2026. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)
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Natalie Harp
The President and Harp have a very close working relationship.
Harp has long been infatuated with the President and credits him with saving her life, after he enabled the use of experimental drugs which she used to treat her bone cancer.
She also reportedly left him notes saying, “you are all that matters to me” and, “I want to bring you joy”.
A closer look at Ossoff’s comments
Ossoff made his comments after it emerged that Harp was one of the few aides who went with the President when he secretly switched planes after a Nato summit in Turkey last month, because of a possible Iranian threat.
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Mpox arrives in new countries – how worried should you be?
Since 2022, there have been nearly 190,000 lab-confirmed cases of mpox, but a fresh outbreak in the small West-African nation of Guinea-Bissau means the virus is back on the global agenda.
A colourised transmission electron micrograph of mpox virus particles (pink) found within an infected cell (yellow), cultured in the laboratory (Photo: NIAID/Handout via REUTERS)
What we know about the new outbreak
Cases had not been reported in Guinea-Bissau before the latest outbreak, with 23 of the 46 reported cases being children under the age of 15.
The confirmed cases do not appear to be linked, suggesting the virus is circulating more widely and there are unidentified cases.
Big Read
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Why is it spreading?
In the last major global outbreak in 2022, mpox appeared to undergo changes which meant it spread more efficiently from person to person, passing via close contact.
Caption: Health workers during a patient room tour at the Munigi mpox treatment center in Nyiragongo territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. As disease detectives rush to central Africa to quell a??mushrooming mpox??contagion, they’re finding a complex mosaic of infection patterns involving different viral strains and vastly different routes of infection. Photographer: Arlette Bashizi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Photographer: Bloomberg
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This more infectious version of the disease means that it spreads more easily in places like West Africa as there are areas where many people live closely together, such as refugee camps.
Caption: KAMPALA, UGANDA – FEBRUARY 01: Uganda launches the first phase of the vaccination campaign for high-risk groups and health workers as part of the fight against the M pox virus (Mpox) epidemic in Kampala, Uganda on February 01, 2025. The 2,000 doses of vaccine donated by the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) are planned to be injected to 1,000 people by health workers. (Photo by Nicholas Kajoba/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Photographer: Anadolu
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Vaccines and treatments
The WHO recommends two vaccines, but the issue of availability is particularly pressing in poorer nations.
A new global stockpile is set to be launched within weeks, meaning vaccines can be deployed more quickly to stop outbreaks.
But they do not stop outbreaks alone, with experts calling for better contact tracing, early detection, strong public health surveillance and supportive care.
It led to claims by poverty campaigners that the much-anticipated roll-out of plug-in solar power could “entrench the divide between people who can afford to take energy saving measures and those who must cut back on energy use due to a lack of affordability”.
The announcement that the panels will now be legal to buy came as Ofgem raised the energy price cap by 4 per cent, or £73, to £1,935 a year from October – the highest level in three years.
Responding to the increase, Andy Burnham said: “We’ll continue to look as we go forward at how we get energy prices down in the long term, and that’s what we need to do too.”
Argos among those selling from Thursday
Plug-in solar panels are cheaper than traditional solar panels, which require installation, and reduce a household’s energy bills by generating electricity and reducing the amount drawn from the grid.
While the technology is widely used in countries like Germany, it has been illegal in the UK up until now under safety regulations.
However, after the completion of an independent safety study, the Government has declared that the technology is safe to use with UK wiring and new regulations will come into effect on Thursday allowing the kits to go on sale.
McCluskey said that the Government expected the price of single panel kits to settle at between £400 and £600, and that Argos would be among those selling them from Thursday with “other retailers to follow soon after”.
Single-panel kits could save households up to £110 a year on their bills, with each kit producing up to 800 watts – enough to power 20 per cent of an average home’s electricity use – or roughly sufficient to run a fridge, television, Wi-Fi router, laptop, phone charger and an Xbox S at once when the sun is shining.
With the kits still costing hundreds of pounds to buy, The i Paper asked McCluskey whether there were any plans for Government grants to reduce the upfront cost for lower-income households.
He said: “At the moment we’re not proposing delivering them through a Government scheme from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
“But obviously local authorities, charities, others will have their own funds that they could choose if they want to subsidise plug-in solar or to purchase plug-in solar for their residents… there’s nothing standing in their way of doing that.”
Ministers will ‘look more closely’ at subsidies
McCluskey said that ministers would “look more closely” at whether subsidised units would be “something in the future that we might provide through Government schemes”. He said if local authorities wanted to do it now they had his “enthusiastic” support and “should get on and do it”.
The government had previously indicated that it would pilot free plug-in solar panels for some households under its Warm Homes Plan.
Plug-in solar is seen as particularly promising for people like renters and those in flats, who have struggled to benefit from traditional solar in the past.
Many renters will still have to get permission from their landlords to use the kits, but McCluskey urged landlords not to stand in the way.
“We have written to the National Landlords Association, making quite clear the benefits of plug-in solar, and would hope that that would be looked on favourably by landlords,” he said. “I don’t see a reason why a landlord should needlessly withdraw consent or not provide consent for that when the safety case is robust.”
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh said that plug-in solar would be a “simple, affordable way for households to take control of their energy bills and start saving straight away” and that it would allow people to benefit from “clean homegrown energy”.
Fears over energy divide
But poverty campaigners have questioned whether cash-strapped local authorities can afford to give out grants, and suggested the Government could do more to make them more affordable.
Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “Households struggling with further increases in energy bills or in energy debt cannot find several hundred pounds up front, however good the payback looks over four years.
“The danger is this could entrench the divide between people who can afford to take energy saving measures and those who must cut back on energy use due to a lack of affordability. In the current climate, expecting charities or local authorities to cover this cost is unrealistic.”
Jonathan Bean from Fuel Poverty Action added: “We should all be getting our fair share of the cheap clean energy from our wind and sun. Government must make solar power, storage and cheap tariffs available to everyone, not just a privileged few.”