Can a Condition Improvement Fund bid pay for school solar panels?

The only national bidding route left

With the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme closed and no Salix loan for English schools, the Condition Improvement Fund is the one national fund a school can still bid into. That has made it the subject of a lot of hopeful advice about solar. The Department for Education’s information for applicants for 2026 to 2027 is more specific than most of that advice.

Who can bid

To bid for 2026 to 2027, a school had to be one of these at the start of September 2025:

• a stand-alone academy;
• a school in a multi-academy trust with fewer than five schools or fewer than 3,000 pupils;
• a voluntary aided school in a VA body or group under the same thresholds — VA schools contribute at least 10% of the cost;
• a sixth-form college.

Larger trusts and local authorities with maintained schools receive School Condition Allocation instead and cannot bid. The 2026 to 2027 round closed at noon on 16 December 2025, and outcomes were announced on 22 May 2026.

What CIF pays for

CIF is a condition fund. The guidance gives the highest priority to projects addressing compliance and health and safety, and to critical replacements of coal and oil-fired boilers with low-carbon heating alternatives where there is a risk of school closure. It then prioritises weather-tightness and continuous heating and water supply.

Why solar-only bids fail

The guidance is direct: works to improve energy efficiency, such as lighting projects, which do not involve works to address high-need condition issues “are unlikely to be successful in receiving CIF funding as they have a lower priority”. A solar array on a sound roof is exactly that kind of project. Where solar does appear in the guidance, it is as an example of evidence of positive environmental impact for the sustainability part of the score — alongside rainwater recycling, smart lighting and heat pumps.

How to design solar into a condition bid

• Start from the condition need. A roof at the end of its life is the most common one. The bid is the roof; the solar is designed in.
• Use the sustainability requirement. The guidance expects applicants to consider energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable options when replacing components, and to evidence any reduction in energy use with data — so use your own metered consumption, not a generic estimate.
• Keep the costs separable. Price the roof and the solar separately, so that if the bid succeeds on the roof alone, the solar can still go ahead from capital or a power purchase agreement.
• Get VAT right. Academies exclude VAT from project costs unless advice says it is payable; sixth-form colleges and VA schools include it, leaving out only any element they can reclaim.

If CIF will not fund it

Most solar on English schools will be funded from capital or a power purchase agreement, not CIF. Our school solar cost guide shows what a school array costs and earns, and our page on Salix funding for schools explains why the loan many guides still mention is not available in England.