Renting and solar in Wigan: tenants and landlords

Who rents in the borough

About a third of Wigan's households rent. The 2021 Census puts 15.9% renting privately and 17.0% renting from a social landlord, with 14.0% of all households renting from the council or another local authority (Census 2021). Together that is 32.9% of the 143,105 Wigan households counted, by our arithmetic, and 3.0% rent from a social landlord other than the council, such as a housing association.

The split matters because it decides who to ask. A private tenant's route runs through the landlord or letting agent; a council tenant's runs through the council as landlord; a housing association tenant asks the association. None of them can commission a roof system on a home they do not own, and none should be talked into signing for one by a seller at the door, which doorstep sellers covers.

Energy costs weigh on many of those households. In 2024, 9.8% of Wigan households, about 14,606, were in fuel poverty, against 9.9% in England (DESNZ). The local figures used here are not split by tenure, but they explain why the household routes into GMCA's grant, set out below, turn on income and benefits as well as on the home.

Private tenants: how to ask a landlord

The roof belongs to the landlord, so a roof system is the landlord's decision and the landlord's contract. What a tenant can do is make the case clearly. Put the request in writing; mention the home's EPC band if you know it; point to the grant and the energy rules below, which give a landlord reasons of its own; and offer access for a survey. A landlord who agrees then chooses and pays the installer, and you can still ask to see the quote and the checks that were made. If a letting agent manages the home, the decision still rests with the landlord, so ask the agent to pass your request on in writing and to tell you when it has.

A landlord can say no, and for a roof system that settles it. Keep a copy of your request and the reply all the same. The rules on energy standards for private lets are tightening, as the section below explains, and a landlord who turned down panels this year may look at them differently once a new EPC is due or the higher standard is confirmed. A polite request on file is easy to return to at the next renewal.

Smaller steps are possible without touching the roof. Plug-in solar kits up to 800 W that connect through an ordinary socket became legal to sell and use on 27 August 2026 (SI 2026/848), and GOV.UK's advice is to check whether any permissions are needed before buying one, which may include a landlord's (GOV.UK). Read the tenancy for anything about fixings, the outside of the building or electrical changes, and get the landlord's agreement in writing. Plug-in solar covers the kits and the planning rules.

GMCA's grant for privately rented homes

Greater Manchester's Warm Homes: Local Grant covers privately rented homes on narrower terms than owner-occupied ones, and every condition has to be met (GMCA). The home must be at EPC band D or E, or F or G only with a registered exemption under the private rented property regulations; the landlord must support the Greater Manchester Good Landlord Charter; and the tenant's household must meet one of the household routes: a postcode in the two most deprived income deciles, a listed means-tested benefit, two of six listed proxies (one is a referral from AWARM Wigan) or a combined gross income below £36,000.

For homes and households that pass those tests, GMCA's page lists the money too. A landlord's first property can receive 100% of the cost up to £30,000 across energy performance and low-carbon heating; for second and later properties it pays half the cost, up to £15,000 in all. GMCA's figures may lag the national ones: DESNZ guidance for councils, updated in June 2026, raised the caps to £16,600 for energy performance and £16,600 for low-carbon heating, averaged across a council's project (DESNZ), so ask GMCA for its current limits. Solar PV and battery storage sit among the energy performance measures, but measures come in the order a retrofit assessment recommends, aiming at EPC band C, so insulation may come first. The page does not list the boroughs it covers and names Wigan only through the AWARM Wigan referral route, so a landlord should ask GMCA's Retrofit Team whether the address is covered before relying on it. Outside this scheme there is no grant for solar for those who can pay (Warm Homes Plan); help with the cost sets out the routes for owner-occupiers.

The minimum energy rules for private lets

Separately from any grant, a private landlord has a legal floor to meet. From 1 April 2020, landlords have not been able to let, or continue to let, homes covered by the minimum energy efficiency rules if the EPC rating is below E, unless a valid exemption is in place, and the current guidance says a landlord is not required to spend more than £3,500, including VAT (GOV.UK). The same guidance says members of the public can search the PRS Exemptions Register for exempt properties and for penalties issued to landlords who did not comply, so a tenant told that an F or G home is exempt can check for themselves.

A higher standard is coming. The government's response of January 2026 says private landlords of all tenancies will be required to comply with a higher standard, built around EPC band C, by 1 October 2030, investing up to £10,000 per property, and that the legislative changes will be subject to Parliamentary approval (GOV.UK). The landlord guidance, last updated in May 2026, still gives band E as the minimum and says further information will follow (GOV.UK). The response names solar panels as an example of the smart measures a landlord could choose for the second part of the new standard, which gives a landlord planning ahead a reason to listen.

Wigan's housing explains why this matters locally. Of the borough's homes with an EPC, 53.6% are at band C or above, but only 26.9% of those built before 1929 and 45.4% of terraced houses reach it (ONS). Older terraces and semis are where a landlord is most likely to have work to do, and where semis and terraces explains what the roof itself can take.

Council and housing association tenants

Social tenants are in a different position. The landlord is the council or a housing association, which decides what goes on its homes and when, and this guide does not know the plans of any of them. Ask your landlord directly whether solar or other energy work is planned for your home, and whether it would agree to a plug-in kit. GMCA's grant page describes a scheme for owner-occupied and privately rented homes with a qualifying household, and does not mention social housing (GMCA).

If someone at the door says they are fitting panels for your landlord, check with the landlord before letting anyone in, and do not sign a sales contract for a roof you do not own.

When the landlord brings in an installer

If the landlord goes ahead, the tenant lives with the result, so it is fair to ask how the firm was chosen. The checks are the same as for an owner: the firm on the MCS installer search under the name on the quote, its consumer code, a written estimate in kWh, and a price that makes sense against the North West figures on the costs page. Checking a solar installer sets them out, and a landlord can run the quote through the quote checker in a few minutes.

Agree the practical points in writing before work starts: access dates and scaffolding, who holds the login for the inverter's monitoring, who to contact if it shows a fault, and whose name any export tariff will be in. The landlord should keep the MCS certificate and the network notice, and a copy of the inverter's user guide helps the tenant spot a fault early; looking after solar panels covers what to watch for.