Do Care Homes Get Grants for Solar in 2026?

Operators ask this first, and they are usually told something vague and optimistic. Here is the direct answer: for a private care provider in 2026 there is no open general capital grant for solar. The support that exists is fiscal, it is substantial, and one part of it expires in March 2027.

What is closed

The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme is the scheme most often mentioned in proposals. It has had no open application window since November 2024, and even when open it was restricted to public sector bodies. A privately owned care home was never eligible. If a supplier’s payback model assumes a PSDS award, that model is built on nothing — ask them to re-run it without the grant and watch what happens to the payback figure.

What is genuinely open, and to whom

Registered providers of social housing are in a different position. Stock-decarbonisation funding routes exist for qualifying social housing, and sheltered or extra-care schemes held by a registered provider may fall within scope. This is a real route, but it is a route for the landlord, not for a care operator leasing the building. The first question is always who owns the asset.

Charitable providers occasionally access trust and foundation funding for capital works. It is slow, competitive and rarely covers a whole scheme, but it is not nothing — and unlike capital allowances it is available to organisations that pay no corporation tax.

What actually reduces the cost for everyone else

Three things, all statutory:

Support	Value	Applies until
Zero-rate VAT on solar and battery in residential accommodation	0% instead of 5% or 20%	31 March 2027, then 5%
Generating plant excluded from rateable value (England)	No rates uplift from the installation	2035
Annual Investment Allowance on the capex	Relief on up to £1m of qualifying spend	Current

The VAT position is the one with a deadline, and it is the strongest argument against letting a decision drift. A care home providing residential accommodation ordinarily qualifies for the zero rate on energy-saving materials until 31 March 2027, after which the relief reverts to 5%.

On allowances, one correction worth having: solar PV sits in the special rate pool and is relieved through the Annual Investment Allowance. It is not eligible for full expensing, whatever a proposal may claim. That single fact is a reliable test of whether a supplier understands the tax position or has copied a line from a general commercial brochure.

And if your organisation pays no corporation tax — many charitable and trust-owned providers do not — the allowance is worth nothing to you, which changes the funding comparison completely and usually points towards a different route.

The practical order

Establish who owns the building, then whether the owner pays tax, then whether the works can complete before the VAT relief steps down. Those three answers determine the funding route before anyone looks at a roof.

For the full breakdown of routes by operator type, see our guide to solar panels for care homes and the detail on care home solar grants.