Who rents in Liverpool
The 2021 Census counted 207,491 Liverpool households. Of those, 46.8% owned their home: 24.3% outright and 22.5% with a mortgage or loan. Most of the rest rent, 26.1% from a private landlord and 26.4% from a social landlord (ONS Census 2021). Add the two renting groups together and they come to 52.5% of households, more than the owners (our arithmetic).
The social side splits very unevenly. Just 4.5% of households rent from the council, while 21.9% rent from a housing association or another social landlord. For solar that distinction matters, because the decision sits with whoever owns the building, and in Liverpool a social tenant's landlord is far more likely to be a housing association than the council.
| Tenure | Share of households | Who decides | Where to start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owned outright | 24.3% | The owner | Planning rules and the state of the roof |
| Owned with a mortgage or loan | 22.5% | The owner | As above; read the mortgage terms on alterations |
| Rented from a private landlord | 26.1% | The landlord | A written request; a plug-in kit if the tenancy allows |
| Rented from a housing association or other social landlord | 21.9% | The housing association | Ask whether panels are in its plans for the building |
| Rented from the council | 4.5% | Liverpool City Council, as landlord | Ask the housing team the same question |
For roughly half the city, then, the roof belongs to someone else. That does not rule solar out, but it changes the first step from getting quotes to getting agreement. The sections below take each kind of renter in turn.
Renting privately
In a privately rented house or flat, the landlord owns the roof, the walls and the electrical installation. Panels on the roof are an alteration to the building and a long-term addition to it, so they are the landlord's call and, in most cases, the landlord's project. Check your tenancy agreement for its clause on alterations and fixings; it will tell you what needs written consent before anything is attached to the property.
Some landlords will be open to the idea and some will not. A request is more likely to land if it shows you have done the groundwork: which slope of the roof would take panels, roughly how big a system would fit, and what similar homes cost. The cost page has the North West figures per kW, and a landlord who wants quotes can use the checklist on finding an installer.
A landlord weighing it up will think about the roof first. 30.9% of the properties on Liverpool's council tax list were built before 1919 (VOA 2026), and an old slate roof near the end of its life should be put right before anything is fixed to it, because lifting panels later means paying for scaffolding twice. They will also want to know who looks after the system between tenancies, and whether their buildings insurer needs to be told. If the landlord agrees, ask to be involved in where the inverter and any battery go, as they will sit inside the home you live in.
Liverpool adds a local layer. The council runs a landlord licensing scheme from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2027, and says it covers around 80% of the city's private rented sector (Liverpool City Council). Under licensing, a private landlord with a property in the designated area needs a licence from the council to let it. The council is now consulting on what should follow the current scheme, and the widest option on the table would cover all 64 of the city's wards (licensing consultation).
Licensing is about how rented homes are run, not about solar. For a tenant, the practical point is simpler: the person who holds the property's licence, or the agent who manages it for them, is the one to write to about any change to the building.
The council grant and private renters
Liverpool City Council's Warm Homes: Local Grant is open to private renters as well as owners. The home must be in Liverpool and rated EPC D to G, and the household must meet one of three tests: a postcode in the most deprived areas on the council's list (deciles 1 and 2 of the Index of Multiple Deprivation), a means-tested benefit, or gross household income under £36,000, with an after-housing-costs test by household size as an alternative (Liverpool City Council). Solar panels and batteries are among the measures, alongside heat pumps and insulation, subject to a full survey and to the money available.
The council says the scheme is oversubscribed for its second year, which runs 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Registering now counts towards the third year, from 1 April 2027, and registration goes through the government's portal only (GOV.UK). Because the work would be to your landlord's building, expect the landlord to have to agree before anything is fitted, and ask how the council handles rented homes when you register.
Outside that scheme, households that can afford panels get no grant for them in England; the government's Warm Homes Plan points them to low-cost loans instead (Warm Homes Plan). The help with the cost page sets out every route in one place.
Housing association and council tenants
If you rent from a housing association, the association owns the building and decides what goes on its roof, and the same is true of the council for its own tenants. Any panels would come out of the landlord's own programme of works rather than an application from you. The council grant described above is for owners and private renters, so it is not a route for social tenants. Council tenants should put the question to the council's housing side, as landlord, rather than to its planning department.
That still leaves a question worth asking. Write to your landlord and ask whether solar is part of its plans for your home or your block, whether a roof replacement is due (the natural moment to add panels), and, if panels did go up, how the electricity would be shared or credited. Keep the reply; plans change, and a written answer is something to refer back to.
Many social tenants live in flats, where the roof is shared by every household in the block and any scheme is communal. The guide to flats and apartments covers how those decisions are made.
Plug-in panels: the tenant's option
From 27 August 2026, solar kits that plug into an ordinary socket can be used legally, provided their rated output is no more than 800 W and they meet the government's Plug-in Solar Device Interim Product Specification (SI 2026/848). They are the one form of solar a tenant can buy, own and take to the next home.
Fixing one to the building became permitted development on the same date, with an exception: not where any part of the kit would sit on a wooden wall, balcony or enclosure, or on part of the outside that is clad in timber (SI 2026/896). In a conservation area covered by an Article 4 direction, ask the council first; the planning page explains why.
Planning is only one permission. Look first at where the light falls: a back yard closed in by high walls on a terraced street may see little direct sun for much of the year, and a kit there will disappoint. Brackets screwed into a wall or a balcony rail count as an alteration under a typical tenancy, so get the landlord's agreement in writing, even for a kit on a frame that stands on its own. The plug-in solar guide shows what a kit would make in Liverpool, in kWh, for each direction.
How to ask your landlord
A short, specific letter or email gets further than a passing mention. Cover these points, and in a shared house raise it jointly with the other tenants, as a roof system or a kit affects everyone on the same meter:
- What you are asking for. A roof system designed and fitted by an MCS-certified installer, or a plug-in kit of up to 800 W, and where on the property it would go.
- Who pays and who owns it. If the landlord pays for a roof system it belongs to the house; a plug-in kit you buy stays yours.
- The export side. Who would hold any export tariff for a roof system; the guide to export payments explains the rules.
- Access and upkeep. Who arranges roof access, bird mesh and the inverter replacement panels need during their life; see looking after panels.
- The end of the tenancy. What stays, what goes, and how any fixing holes are made good.
Ask for the answer in writing, and keep it with your tenancy agreement. If the answer is no, ask why: a roof replacement or a planned sale may make it a better question in a year's time. If the landlord says yes to a roof system, the installation paperwork, from the MCS certificate to the SP Energy Networks notification, should be passed to them as the owner, with a copy for you.