THE SHORT ANSWER
A typical solar panel project in the United Kingdom lands at GBP 6,050 to GBP 12,150 in 2026, with a midpoint near GBP 9,100. Gross margin on that midpoint is usually 18 to 28 percent, or GBP 1,650 to GBP 2,550. Against a modelled cost per lead of GBP 100 to GBP 150 and 3 to 5 exclusive leads per signed customer, acquisition consumes roughly 9.9 to 42.8 percent of the gross margin on one job.
Job value is the number every other commercial decision divides into, which is why roughly right beats precisely wrong. Below is a 2026 band for solar panel projects in the United Kingdom and, more usefully, what happens when you divide it: margin on the midpoint job, and what winning that job costs before a single tool comes off the van.
Treat the width of the band as information rather than vagueness. The variables are system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity, and on top of them sits the market itself: in the United Kingdom, English-language auctions attract bidders from outside the country, which lifts click prices above what the local competitive density alone would justify.
The numbers, at a glance
Typical project value: GBP 6,050 to GBP 12,150 for a standard solar panel job in the United Kingdom, midpoint around GBP 9,100
Gross margin: 18 to 28 percent of contract value, which is GBP 1,650 to GBP 2,550 on the midpoint job
Cost to win one customer: GBP 250 to GBP 700 in lead spend, assuming 3 to 5 exclusive leads per signed job at GBP 100 to GBP 150 each
Acquisition as a share of margin: 9.9 to 42.8 percent of the gross margin on a single job, before any repeat or referral value
Where the solar panel number comes from in the United Kingdom
Everything here is a complete installed job for a private household, excluding VAT and excluding competitively tendered work. Emergency repairs are excluded too: urgency prices on availability rather than on scope, and mixing the two produces an average that describes neither.
Inside that definition the spread comes from system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity. The United Kingdom is a market of roughly 68 million people, which is the pool every one of those quotes is written into.
Around GBP 6,050 for the simple version of this job on an accessible property.
Around GBP 9,100 for the version most quotes describe, including the upgrades customers ask for once they have seen the first price.
Around GBP 12,150 once scope, access or specification all move in the same direction.
What a block of leads has to produce to pay for itself
Work the package price backwards. Take 10 exclusive leads for EUR 750. At 3 to 5 leads per signed customer that is 2 to 3 jobs. At the EUR 10,700 midpoint that is EUR 21,400 to EUR 32,150 of contract value and EUR 3,850 to EUR 9,000 of gross margin, against a lead spend of EUR 750.
The block pays for itself on the first signed job and everything after that is return. That is the honest test of any lead purchase at this job value: not whether the price per lead feels high, but how many jobs the block has to produce before it breaks even, and whether that number is one or four.
How system size sets the number before anything else
Solar is quoted per watt-peak, not per job. A 4 kWp array and a 9 kWp array on the same house use the same scaffold, the same survey and largely the same day of labour, so the larger one is far cheaper per watt even though the contract is roughly double. Price per kWp typically falls from around EUR 1,300 on a small domestic system to under EUR 900 once you pass 8 kWp. If your average contract is stuck at the bottom of the band, the usual cause is quoting the array the homeowner asked for rather than the array the roof will carry and the consumption justifies.
London day rates and the rest of the country
UK job values split roughly three ways. London and the South East run 20 to 30 percent above the national figure on labour, with congestion charging, parking suspensions and permit costs on top. The Midlands and the North West sit close to the national average, and parts of the North and Wales below it. Scaffolding and skip hire vary just as much as labour does. Taking enquiries nationally on one price list means the London jobs subsidise nothing and the northern ones quietly price you out. Segment the price list before you segment the marketing.
Zero rate VAT on energy-saving materials runs out in 2027
Installation of qualifying energy-saving materials in residential property in Great Britain is currently zero rated for VAT, with the relief scheduled to revert to 5 percent from April 2027. For solar, heat pumps and insulation that is a 20 percent difference against a standard-rated job in what the household pays. It is worth stating on the quote, both because it is a real reason to act now and because customers weighing an energy measure against general building work often do not realise the two are taxed differently. Confirm eligibility per measure rather than assuming it covers the whole contract.
The case against paid lead generation at this job value
The arithmetic on this page can point the other way, and pretending otherwise is how contractors lose a quarter. At GBP 1,650 to GBP 2,550 of gross margin on the midpoint job, acquisition stops being sensible somewhere above GBP 400 per signed customer, and the modelled figure sits at GBP 250 to GBP 700.
So test yourself before you test a supplier. If your median time to first call attempt is measured in hours, if you quote fewer than half the enquiries you receive, or if you are already turning work away, more volume will not help. In each of those cases the cheapest available improvement is internal and costs nothing per lead.
The lever is scope, not negotiation
Every ratio on this page improves faster from the revenue side than from the cost side. Adding a battery to a solar panel job adds roughly 40 to 70 percent to the contract value on the same site visit, and it is sold to a household that has already chosen you. Winning one more customer at the same margin costs GBP 250 to GBP 700 in lead spend; upgrading the scope of one you have already won costs a better quote and twenty minutes.
Price the option, do not mention it. An option with a number attached is bought roughly three times as often as an option described in a sentence.
Put both versions on one page. Two priced columns beat two separate documents, because the comparison is the sale.
Give the upgrade a reason that is not money. Noise, comfort, disruption avoided later, and a guarantee that covers the whole job rather than half of it.
Dividing job value by what a customer costs
The whole calculation in one line: GBP 100 to GBP 150 per exclusive lead, 3 to 5 leads per signed customer, GBP 250 to GBP 700 to win that customer, against GBP 1,650 to GBP 2,550 of gross margin on the midpoint job. Acquisition is therefore 9.9 to 42.8 percent of the margin from one project.
Compare that against the alternatives rather than against zero. A shared lead at half the price, reaching four solar panel installers at once, typically needs two to three times as many to produce a sale, which lands in the same place or worse and costs three times the sales effort. The cheapest sticker price is rarely the cheapest customer.
The three lines homeowners argue about
Scaffolding, the consumer unit upgrade and the cable run from roof to inverter are what turn a signed solar quote into a renegotiation. All three are invisible in the marketing and all three can add EUR 500 to EUR 2,000 once a surveyor has been on site. Absorbing them is the wrong answer. Either survey before the price is fixed, or state a provisional sum for each with the condition that triggers it. A quote that arrives EUR 1,200 higher after the survey loses more deals than the same total quoted honestly on day one.
How to work out your own number instead of using this one
Pull your last twenty signed solar panel contracts and take the median value rather than the mean, so one outlier project does not distort the figure.
Subtract materials and installation labour from each to get real gross margin, then take the median of that too.
Count how many enquiries it took to sign those twenty jobs, including the ones that never answered, to get your true leads-per-customer ratio.
Multiply that ratio by the lead price you are being quoted to get your actual cost per signed customer.
Divide that by your median gross margin. Above 25 percent, fix conversion or scope before you buy more volume.
How these figures were built
These figures are a benchmark model, not a survey. They combine an industry base range observed across Western European home-improvement campaigns with a country multiplier for local auction pressure. Treat them as a band to negotiate against, not a quote. The band is an industry base range for solar panel multiplied by a British construction cost index of 1.02, where the Benelux baseline is 1.00. Construction cost and advertising cost are modelled separately on purpose: cheap clicks and cheap labour do not reliably occur in the same market. Figures are modelled in euro and converted at 0.85 GBP per EUR 1, so the local number is indicative rather than a spot price.
How Flock Leads prices this
If the arithmetic works at your conversion rate, this is what buying that volume costs outright, with no retainer sitting on top of it:
Starter - 10 leads for EUR 750, which is EUR 75 per lead
Growth - 25 leads for EUR 1,750, which is EUR 70 per lead
Scale - 45 leads for EUR 2,925, which is EUR 65 per lead
Pro - 70 leads for EUR 4,340, which is EUR 62 per lead
Max - 90 leads for EUR 5,400, which is EUR 60 per lead
No retainer, no contract term, and no lead sent to a second business. Unused volume rolls over under the Flock Lead Promise.
Want leads like this in your pipeline?
Flock runs the campaigns, screens the enquiries and hands you only the ones that match your service area, job size and capacity. You pay per lead, not per month.
Book a 15-minute fit check | See lead package pricing
Related answers
Frequently asked questions
What is the average solar panel job worth in the United Kingdom in 2026?
Modelled at GBP 6,050 to GBP 12,150 for a complete installed project for a private homeowner, excluding VAT, with a midpoint near GBP 9,100. The width is real: system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity all move the figure materially.
Why is the band so wide?
Because system size in kilowatt-peak, whether a battery is included, and roof complexity genuinely swings the price that much. A narrow average would be more comforting and less true. The useful move is to establish where your own typical job sits inside the band, then price your marketing against that point rather than against the midpoint.
Is job value in the United Kingdom rising or falling in 2026?
Material prices have largely stabilised after the volatility of the early decade, while installation labour remains the tighter constraint across most of Western Europe. The practical effect is that job values drift upward slowly and the labour component grows as a share of each quote. Re-check your own median twice a year rather than trusting a published figure.
What gross margin should I expect on solar panel work?
18 to 28 percent of contract value is the working band, which is GBP 1,650 to GBP 2,550 on the GBP 9,100 midpoint job. Below 18 percent you are either buying materials badly or quoting labour at a rate that does not cover a wet week.
Why do you use a different index for job value and lead cost?
Because they measure different things. Lead prices track how many installers are bidding in a local advertising auction. Job values track labour rates and material logistics. Poland has cheap clicks and cheap labour, Ireland has mid-priced clicks and very expensive labour, and a single multiplier would misprice both.
NEED A CLEARER PLAN?
Let’s turn your next move into momentum.
Talk to us →