How workers across UK can slash energy bills by up to 50% with new sch | Personal Finance | Finance

British households facing their second energy crisis in five years can now protect themselves from soaring bills through a scheme that gives workers access to solar panels, home batteries and EV charge points as a workplace benefit.

Launching against a backdrop of doubled energy bills, the end of the ECO4 grant scheme in March, and a Government Warm Homes Plan whose 0% solar loans won’t be fully operational until 2027, Heva Energy has announced the first salary sacrifice scheme for home energy systems.

Heva uses the same tax mechanism that turbocharged Britain’s electric vehicle revolution to put solar within reach of ordinary workers. Even renters can benefit. A worker earning £35,000 in rented accommodation can access a home battery through their employer for just £75 a month, saving on average £56 a month on energy bills.

For those who own their home, an employee on £45,000 without solar panels can pay £75 a month for a 15kWh battery that stores cheap overnight electricity and releases it during costly peak hours, saving on average £68 a month. For a higher earner on £60,000 with an electric company car, the full solar, battery and charge point package costs £123 a month net, generating £171 a month in energy savings.

The NHS and the National Lottery Community Fund have already signed up as employers.

Darren Riley, MD of D-Hive, a subsidiary of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Healthcare workers were hit as hard as anyone by the last energy crisis, and many see buying solar outright as simply not an option. What attracted us to Heva was the proposition’s ability to deliver meaningful savings for large proportions of the staff base and not just those on the highest salaries.”

Demand has tripled in the past month as workers look for protection against energy price volatility.

Ian Napier, co-founder of Heva Energy, said: “Most households have no mechanism to protect themselves from rising energy costs.

“The Government killed ECO4, delayed the Warm Homes Plan until 2027 as energy bills double. Households needed a solution now, not a promise. Salary sacrifice has been sitting in the tax code for years. We just used it. Now we’re working with the Government to make sure more people can.”

Employers save £2,500 per participating employee in National Insurance contributions each year.

Ryan Griffin, MD of OVAGLAS Group, was one of the first to try Heva Energy’s salary sacrifice scheme, which put £17,800 of Tesla battery storage and solar panels on his roof. Now half his eligible workforce wants in.

When Ryan’s CFO suggested a new salary sacrifice scheme for solar panels, the managing director of OVAGLAS Group decided to try it for himself first.

“I wasn’t going to ask my staff to sign up to something I hadn’t tried myself,” the MD of the Yorkshire-based window-film specialist said. “I figured I’d be the guinea pig. I was already looking at solar, and the salary sacrifice version meant I could go for the premium kit I wanted without writing a £17,000 cheque.”

What Ryan didn’t expect was just how much he’d save or that a quirk of student loan rules would push the total savings even higher.

The kit was a 6kW solar array paired with a Tesla Powerwall 3 battery and an expansion pack. 27kWh of home battery storage, more than enough to run his home for a full day without drawing from the grid.

Quotes from different installers for the same system came in at over £17K.

Through Heva Energy’s scheme, Ryan paid for it all from his gross salary over 36 months at a net cost to him of just £8,700.

That’s a saving of £8,300. Or roughly £230 a month off what he’d have paid any other way.

“What I didn’t expect,” he said, “was that my student loan repayments came down too. That’s an extra few hundred pounds I hadn’t counted on.”

Higher-rate taxpayers like Ryan save 40 per cent income tax and two per cent National Insurance on the salary they sacrifice. But anyone still paying off a student loan also avoids the nine per cent loan deduction on that slice of salary pushing the headline saving rate from 42 per cent to over 50 per cent.

The install was handled by ACT, one of the installer partners on the Heva platform who handled the grid permissions. With the contract signed, the kit was on the roof in under two weeks.

Now the system is generating, and Ryan’s house, a busy semi-detached with a young family, a heat-hungry household and an EV doing 20,000 miles a year is exporting around £175 a month back to the grid over the summer months. The huge battery setup also lets him shift his consumption away from peak-tariff windows.

Pilot done, Ryan opened the scheme to his 20 staff at the end of April and the level of interest in the scheme has surprised him.

“Of those eligible, more than half have already put their hand up,” he said. “We’re rolling them out over the next six months.”

Why does it work for the business? Two reasons, Ryan said.

“Energy bills are going up again, and we wanted to do something tangible to support our team. It also fits our net-zero commitment. This is a way for us to put our money where our mouth is, except it costs the company nothing.”

Heva Energy’s solar salary sacrifice scheme carries no employer cost and actually saves participating businesses around £2,500 in National Insurance per employee enrolled. It launches against a backdrop of doubled energy bills, the end of the ECO4 grant scheme in March, and a Government Warm Homes Plan whose 0% solar loans won’t be fully operational until 2027.

Ryan’s advice to other MDs is direct.

“If you’re a boss wondering how to support staff through another tough energy year and how to actually offer something rather than just talk about it. This is a no-brainer. There’s no employer cost. Your staff save 30 to 50 per cent. And if you’re sensible, you’ll do what I did and try it yourself first.”

James, 36, has used his employer’s salary sacrifice scheme to install 21 solar panels and a Tesla home battery, cutting his tax bill and protecting his family’s childcare entitlements in the process.

The father of two from Crewe had been considering solar for a couple of years. As his energy bills climbed, he felt increasingly powerless.

“I was sick of not being in control of my energy bill,” said James, a sales manager. “They’re always going up, never coming down. I was tired of not being able to do anything about it.”

The £16,000 upfront cost had been the main barrier. He and his partner didn’t have that sum readily available, and he was wary of cheaper, lower quality systems.

That changed when his employer, (Forktruck solutions) a supplier of electric only material handling equipment, signed up to a salary sacrifice scheme run by Heva Energy. The scheme allows employees to pay for solar panels directly from their gross salary, similar to how electric vehicle salary sacrifice schemes have helped hundreds of thousands of UK workers afford an EV.

The result has been dramatic. James now has a 9.4kW solar system and a Tesla Powerwall 3 battery in his home. The retail value of the setup was around £16,5K

His net cost was just £9,149

“On top of the childcare savings, we saved £7,300 in tax, and we’re saving over £100 a month on energy bills,” James said. “It seems a bit too good to be true.”

His annual electricity bill has dropped from £2,000 to £800.

But the bigger financial impact lies in childcare.

Like many higher-earning parents in the UK, James was approaching the income threshold where higher-rate tax and the withdrawal of tax-free childcare allowances became a major concern. Once earnings exceed that level, families lose access to 30 hours free childcare and the Tax-Free Childcare top-up. With performance related pay in the mix, James knew he could cross the line.

“We knew I’d be getting close, and we couldn’t afford to lose the childcare support,“ he said.

Salary sacrifice for solar changed the maths. By paying for the system from gross salary, James reduced his adjusted net income, keeping his family safely under the threshold. He retained the family’s c. £6,000 a year value in 30 hours free childcare and kept the Tax-Free Childcare top-up. Neither would have been possible if he had simply bought the panels from post-tax savings.

“It’s effectively a £6,000 a year saving on the childcare alone,” he said. “It means we can now think about a holiday with that money”

James also points to the environmental upside. The solar system cuts his home’s reliance on grid electricity, some of which is still generated from fossil fuels.

“Overall, I’m really happy I did it,” he said. “I’ve saved money, I’m reducing my environmental impact, what more can you ask for? It’s a genuine win-win: good for my family’s back pocket and good for the planet.”

James had already joined a similar workplace scheme for his electric car.

“I’d already got an EV through work,” he said. “I thought there must be something similar for solar and there was.”

Convincing his manager took some persistence. But once the company was on board, the installation was booked in under a month and completed in two days.

“The installers showed up when they said they would, handed over the equipment, and showed me how the Tesla app works,” he said. “I’ve not had to do anything since. Iit all just comes out of my salary each month.”

James has already spoken to several friends and colleagues who have in turn asked their own employers about it.

His advice to others dreaming of solar but worried about the upfront cost?

“Ask your company to look at it,” he said. “They’ll probably want it themselves and launch the scheme for everyone.”