Do you need planning permission for solar panels?

The rules come from the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015, Schedule 2, Part 14, as amended, most recently by SI 2023/1279 (in force 21 December 2023) and SI 2026/896 (in force 27 August 2026). We'll go through what Part 14 actually says for a dwellinghouse, then the situations where you do need to ask your council first: listed buildings, some conservation areas, flats, and ground mounts.

What counts as permitted development on a pitched roof?

Part 14, Class A of the order covers solar PV and solar thermal equipment on a house, a block of flats, or a building within its grounds. For an ordinary pitched roof, the conditions are:

• The panels must not protrude more than 0.2 metres beyond the plane of the roof slope.
• They must not be higher than the highest part of the roof, not counting the chimney.
• You have to site them, as far as practicable, to minimise the effect on the building's appearance and on the amenity of the area.

There's also a standing condition that applies to every installation under Class A: the equipment has to be removed as soon as reasonably practicable once it's no longer needed. In practice, for an in-use solar array, that condition rarely bites.

On an ordinary pitched roof, a standard in-roof or on-roof solar installation sits well within these limits. The panels we fit lie close to the tiles, so the 0.2 metre projection limit and the roof height limit are normally straightforward.

Wall-mounted equipment is measured differently, and it changed in 2026. Since SI 2026/896, a wall-mounted panel or inverter can protrude up to 0.2 metres where the wall abuts a highway, and up to 0.4 metres on any other wall. The wall limits and the pitched-roof limit are separate tests: which one applies depends on which surface the equipment is fixed to.

What are the limits for a flat roof?

Flat roofs are measured on height, not projection. The current rule sets the highest part of the solar equipment at no more than 0.6 metres above the highest part of the roof, excluding chimneys. That's a separate test from the pitched-roof figures above, because there's no sloped plane to measure a projection from.

There's a further condition for a flat roof specifically: if the property sits on "article 2(3) land", meaning a conservation area, a National Park, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Broads or a World Heritage Site, you have to apply to the council for a determination on whether prior approval is needed for the equipment's appearance, before work begins. That application is a formality rather than a full planning application, but it's a step, and it applies regardless of whether the flat roof can be seen from the street.

This is one area where we'd always check the detail at survey stage rather than assume. A flat roof extension at the back of a house, a bungalow, or a flat-roofed dormer can each sit slightly differently against the rule, and getting the array height wrong against the limit means reworking the design before installation, not after.

Does a conservation area stop you fitting solar panels?

A conservation area on its own doesn't rule out permitted development. The restriction in Class A is specific: it withdraws permitted development rights where the equipment would be installed on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure that fronts a highway, and it applies in conservation areas and in World Heritage Sites alike. "Fronts a highway" means the wall, balcony or roof enclosure faces a road, path or other public right of way, not just that a street is nearby.

So panels on a rear roof slope, or on a side elevation that doesn't front the highway, can still go ahead without a planning application in most cases. A flat roof is different, as above: in a conservation area or other article 2(3) land, it needs that prior approval step regardless of whether it fronts a highway or is visible from the street. Panels on a front-facing wall, balcony or roof enclosure, in a conservation area or World Heritage Site, are the situation that needs full planning permission.

Local planning authorities can also apply an "article 4 direction" to withdraw permitted development rights more widely in a specific conservation area or street. Government guidance to councils (GOV.UK's planning practice guidance, paragraph 038) says there should be "particularly strong justification" before doing this for microgeneration equipment like solar panels, so it's not common, but it does exist in some areas. Your council's planning pages, or a quick phone call, will tell you if an article 4 direction covers your street.

What if the house is listed?

A listed building is a separate, stricter regime from the permitted development rules above, because any work that affects a listed building's character needs listed building consent, regardless of the Class A conditions.

Class A itself goes further than that: it excludes permitted development altogether where the installation would be on a listed building, on a scheduled monument, or within the curtilage of a listed building. That last point catches outbuildings too: if your house is listed, you can't use permitted development to put panels on an outbuilding or garage in the grounds either, even though that outbuilding itself isn't listed.

In practice, that means: if your house is listed, assume you need both planning permission and listed building consent for solar panels, and talk to your council's conservation officer before committing to a design. Some listed buildings can still take solar well, often on a rear slope not visible from the road, but it has to be agreed first, not fitted first.

Do flats need separate permission?

Class A's permitted development rights apply to houses and blocks of flats, but a block of flats usually has more than one leaseholder and a freeholder or management company with its own consent requirements under the lease, separate from planning law. Even where the planning rules allow it, you may still need the freeholder's or management company's permission to fix anything to the roof or walls, and that's worth checking before a survey, not after.

What about a ground-mounted array in the garden?

Class B of Part 14 covers stand-alone solar equipment, meaning a ground-mounted array rather than anything fixed to the house. For a dwellinghouse, the height limit is tiered rather than a single figure:

Alongside the height tiers, Class B also sets:

• The surface area of the panels forming the array as a whole, not any single panel, must not exceed 9 square metres.
• No ground mount within the curtilage of a listed building, or on a scheduled monument, and within a World Heritage Site a ground mount within 5 metres of a boundary isn't permitted development at all.
• In a conservation area or other article 2(3) land, a ground mount within 5 metres of a boundary, or nearer to a highway than the house, needs the same prior-approval step as a flat roof installation, applied for before work begins.

The same site-to-minimise-impact and remove-when-redundant conditions from Class A apply here too.

What about battery storage and outdoor units?

A battery that sits inside the house, in a utility room or garage, isn't a development at all in planning terms: it doesn't change the external appearance of the building, so there's nothing for permitted development rules to apply to. An outdoor battery or hybrid inverter housing, fixed to an external wall or standing in the garden, is treated more like an outbuilding or an item of plant, and the same general outbuilding and curtilage rules apply rather than the solar-specific Class A or B conditions. The practical point is the same as for ground mounts: conservation areas, listed buildings and article 4 directions can all affect where an outdoor unit is allowed to sit, so it's worth asking the question before the position is fixed, not after.

When should you just ask your council?

Call your local planning authority's duty planning officer, or use the planning portal's own permitted development checker, before you commit to a design, if any of the following apply to you:

• Your house is listed, or stands within the grounds of a listed building.
• You're in a conservation area or World Heritage Site and want panels on a front-facing wall, balcony or roof enclosure, or on a flat roof.
• You've had a letter about an article 4 direction, or you're unsure whether one applies to your street.
• You live in a National Park, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or the Broads, where the same article 2(3) rules apply.
• You want a ground mount close to a boundary, or taller than the tier that applies to your situation.

A phone call costs nothing. A planning application that could have been avoided costs time and, usually, a fee.

How does Pro-Fit handle this at survey?

We check the roof at survey before we design around it, and that includes asking whether the property is listed or in a conservation area, because the roof's condition and your planning position both shape what we can fit and where. If your roof needs attention before panels go on, we'll say so: see our roofing page for what that looks like. The wider survey-to-handover process, including the written quote with the price fixed, is set out on our how it works page.