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Labour’s ‘tone deaf’ drive to blot Britain’s rooftops with solar panels is today laid bare.

More than 1.6 million homes have installed panels – typically Chinese-made gadgets that cost homeowners up to £8,000. 

But parts of the country are solar dead-zones, the Daily Mail’s interactive map can reveal, with just one installation per every sq/km in Hexham, Northumberland. 

Our analysis of every constituency in England and Wales names Plymouth Moor View as the nation’s solar panel capital, with 144 per sq/km.   

Leicester East (122), Bristol Central (117), Manchester and Withington (116.9) and Nottingham East (106.9) rounded out the top five.

Richard Tice, Reform’s shadow business, trade and energy secretary, told the Daily Mail: ‘While we support targeted rooftop solar where it actually works, we do not support Mad Miliband’s Net Zero push that risks wrecking our countryside and valuable agricultural land.

‘At a time when household bills are already skyrocketing, it is completely tone deaf for Labour to push the public into buying expensive plug-in solar panels.’

He added: ‘Reform’s position has been clear from the start. We will scrap these Net Stupid Zero policies and bring energy bills down.’

Under plans to install millions more solar panels, Britons may soon be able to buy plug-in versions from retailers such as Lidl and Amazon. 

Ed Miliband, Labour’s Energy Secretary, this week said he wants homeowners to have that option ‘within months’, saying the economic effects of the conflict in the Middle East showed that his controversial Net Zero push is ‘essential’. 

Plug-in versions, which can be positioned on patios or balconies, will cost around £400, reducing pressure on the grid. 

Another initiative announced by ‘Red Ed’ will see the majority of new homes being built with onsite renewable electricity generation, likely in the form of solar.  

The proliferation of solar technology, pushed by Labour’s Great British Energy goal, has stretched over into the creation of enormous so-called solar farms, hectares of black solar panels covering swathes of England’s countryside. 

One of the most controversial proposals is Lime Down in Wiltshire, a proposed 500-megawatt, 3,000-acre solar farm to the North of the M4 near Malmesbury.

After two years of resistance from local communities, energy Firm Island Green Power submitted official plans to build the site in January, a move Wiltshire Council has already said it will fight.

Since Labour took power in June 2024, energy secretary ‘Red Ed’ Miliband has been on a one-man mission to push Great British Energy – Labour’s big green energy machine – forwards, aided by taxpayer-backed subsidies.

A large part of that drive has been the infliction of solar panels upon the public, with just over 177,000 domestic installations completed in 2025 – equivalent to 485 per day. 

Under the Warm Homes plan, backed with £15billion of taxpayer cash, homeowners will soon be able to apply for low and zero-interest loans to install solar panels on their homes in what the Government has dubbed a ‘rooftop revolution’.

Solar generated 6 per cent of the UK’s annual electricity last year, fuelled by the sunniest summer on record. Wind and gas remain the biggest sources of power.

Labour eventually wants 95 per cent of Great Britain’s electricity to come from clean energy sources such as nuclear, solar and wind power.

In real-terms, the UK has around 22 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity. By contrast China, has the world’s biggest capacity with 887 GW – representing over half the global total.  

Experts say the UK should invest in nuclear energy instead of solar, owing to the UK’s inclement weather ruling out consistent year-round power supply.

The UK also currently does not have the infrastructure to store excess solar energy harvested in summer to last through the winter.

Professor Peter Dobson, supernumerary fellow at The Queens’ College Oxford, expanded on these concerns and told the Daily Mail: ‘Domestic investment should be spent on nuclear energy as soon as possible – the UK is one of the worst countries in the world to invest in a solar energy scenario.

‘None of the political parties have addressed the issue properly and strategically. 

‘The timescales have been made too short for proper planning and too few engineers have been involved in the decision making. 

‘It is time to stop policy decisions being made without a detailed techno-economic assessment.’

Ed Miliband is under huge pressure to avoid becoming reliant on China – named by MI5 as a threat to the UK’s economic and national security – for solar power. 

Defence and intelligence officials fear China having too much of an influence in the UK’s energy infrastructure, concerns which have been brought further into light by the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has tried to calm the public by promising help for ‘those who need it most’ as oil and gas prices become increasingly volatile.

The UK Solar Alliance, which campaigns against the overly rapid expansion of solar technology, said the technology is extremely inefficient and relies too heavily on China.

A spokesman told the Daily Mail: ‘Net Zero cannot mean blind speed.

‘Where a critical infrastructure programme relies heavily on manufacturing concentrated in one geopolitical sphere, that is a strategic dependency and it deserves open and sober assessment, not dismissal.

‘Decarbonisation should reinforce resilience, not quietly introduce new structural exposure.’

• A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Professor Dobson was affiliated to Queens’ College Cambridge (Physics). The article has been amended to make the correct position clear.