Councils are being outpaced by private homeowners in their installation rate of rooftop solar panels, data has found.

According to research from the solar energy company, Gryd, 169,717 new solar installations were completed in privately-owned homes in the last year, while only 12,000 solar systems were deployed by local authorities in the same period.

The figures confirmed that 1.67 million residential properties (5.5% of UK housing) are now fitted with rooftop solar, compared to 0.7% of council homes.

With the energy price cap due to rise by 13% from July, Gryd has argued that a growing ‘solar divide’ exists between private homeowners and social housing tenants, with the latter being ‘among the most vulnerable to fuel poverty and first exposed when energy prices spike’.

The Freedom of Information (FOI) requests also found that northern regions of Britain have the greatest shares of solar-powered council homes. North West Wales was shown to have the highest rates (34.2%), with North East Wales (21.7%) and Scotland’s Aberdeen and North East (13%) following in second and third place, respectively.

Significant progress has also been made in the East Midlands, which saw an 88% increase in the number of solar-powered council homes over the last 12 months. The research revealed that the region accounted for over one-third of all new council solar installations nationally in this period.

However, the data found that English and Northen Irish councils had experienced ‘comparatively static’ progress, with just 5.4% of English council homes and 3.9% of those in Northern Ireland being fitted with solar. Furthermore, London had the lowest percentage of solar-powered council homes (1.7%) in the UK.

Mohamed Gaafar, CEO and co-founder of Gryd, said: ‘The UK is entering another period of energy price volatility at the same time as housing efficiency requirements are tightening’.

He added: ‘Private homeowners can respond quickly to price shocks by investing in technologies like solar that reduce their exposure. Social housing tenants rely on councils to make those upgrades on their behalf - but councils are operating within highly constrained funding environments. The barrier is rarely ambition alone - it is upfront capital, and how to best allocate what you have available.'

Mr Gaafar emphasised that it is important to ensure council housing keeps pace with the private market. He highlighted that social landlords should be supported in their efforts to deliver improvements, allowing for the ‘benefits of the clean energy transition [to be] shared fairly’.