Are you one of the 800,000 households on the Feed-in Tariff paid to generate and export electricity? From 1 April it'll get worse
If you're one of the 800,000+ households in England, Wales or Scotland being paid to generate your own electricity under the Feed-In Tariff scheme, you will earn less in the long run, the Government has confirmed. Many with solar panels and other renewable tech won't be happy with the change - MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis says it's not good news, but it could have been far worse.
The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme closed to newbies in 2019 (replaced by the Smart Export Guarantee), but it continues to provide fixed cash payments to existing users for the electricity they generate and export to the grid.
Proposals to change how much the scheme pays were first raised by the Government in November 2025. One of those options - to freeze FIT rates until they were aligned with a lower rate of inflation, which could be 10 years - would have been "a breach of promise", according to Martin.
But today (Wed 28 Jan), the Government has confirmed that it won't freeze rates as feared but will instead increase the FIT by the lower Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of inflation. We've full details on what's changing below.
Martin: 'The Government has gone for the least-worst option'
I think many people with Feed-in Tariff solar panels, while they won't be happy, will be somewhat relieved the Government has gone for the least-worst option it put on the table.
The idea that it was going to freeze Feed-in Tariffs until, say, 2035 would've been a fundamental breach of promise to those who signed up trusting the long-term deal and expecting their payments to rise with inflation.
If it'd backtracked on that, it would've been a huge red flag for anyone considering one of the many future government schemes due in this area to be wary of trusting the terms. So it's good that this option has gone.
Feed-in Tariff rates will rise in line with CPI from April 2026
From 1 April 2026, annual Feed-in Tariff increases will be linked to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation – currently, it's the Retail Prices Index (RPI) rate of inflation. This means that rates will continue to rise each year, but likely at a lower rate (because CPI is typically lower than RPI).
The Government had argued that the current method of using RPI can overestimate inflation, suggesting that those taking part in the scheme have effectively been overpaid. It also said that CPI is more widely used and will help to reduce the cost of the scheme, which is currently being recouped via levies on household electricity bills.
Industry regulator Ofgem will publish the new CPI-indexed tariff rates for the 2026/27 year before 1 April. Going forward, rates will be published on 1 February each year, as they have been up until now.
In its initial proposal, the other option the Government had put forward was to effectively freeze Feed-in Tariff rates for several years, and then start to increase them in line with CPI at a future date (likely around the mid-2030s) – which is now thankfully off the table.
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