Solar panel permitted development on homes and businesses

Solar panel permitted development in England sits in Part 14 of Schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015. Most roof-mounted panels on a house need no planning application at all, provided they do not stick out more than 200 millimetres from the roof slope or wall, they sit below the highest part of the roof, and the house is neither listed nor in the wrong position within a conservation area.

The position described here is as at September 2026. Part 14 has been amended several times, most recently to open up rooftop installations on flats and to remove the generating capacity ceiling on commercial roofs, so check the current text of the Order before you order equipment.

What the right allows on a house

Class A covers solar photovoltaic and solar thermal equipment on a dwellinghouse or a block of flats, and on a building within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse such as a garage or a garden outbuilding.

The main limits are dimensional. Equipment must not protrude more than 200 millimetres beyond the plane of the wall or the roof slope it sits on, which rules out the tilted frames sometimes used to correct a shallow pitch. On a flat roof the equipment must not exceed one metre above the highest part of the roof, excluding any chimney.

Nothing in the class limits how many panels you install or how much they generate. A full south-facing roof is as permitted as a single panel, provided each panel meets the dimensional test.

Ground mounted panels in a garden

Class B deals with a standalone array within the curtilage of a house, and the limits are tighter than people expect. The installation must be no more than four metres high, it must sit at least five metres from the boundary, and the surface area of the panels must not exceed nine square metres. Only one standalone installation is permitted within the curtilage.

Nine square metres is roughly four or five domestic panels. Anything larger is a planning application, and on a typical suburban plot the five metre boundary setback rules the option out before the area limit does.

The standalone right is also withdrawn in front of the principal elevation where the property fronts a highway in a conservation area or a World Heritage Site.

Listed buildings and conservation areas

Permitted development rights for solar do not apply to a listed building or to a building within its curtilage. Panels on a listed building need both planning permission and listed building consent, and consent turns on the effect of the installation on the special interest of the building rather than on its efficiency.

A slate roof facing the street is a much harder case than a rear slope hidden behind a parapet. Where the building is listed, put the argument in a Heritage Statement that identifies the significance affected, explains why the chosen slope is the least harmful, and sets out the reversibility of the fixings.

In a conservation area or World Heritage Site the right survives but is narrowed: equipment must not be installed on a wall which fronts a highway. Roof slopes are treated differently from walls, and whether a slope counts as fronting a highway is a question of fact that councils answer inconsistently. If the answer matters, apply for a lawful development certificate for proposed use or development before the scaffolding arrives.

Article 4 directions can also remove the right in a defined area, and a few authorities have made them in high value conservation areas.

Commercial roofs and the prior approval step

Class J covers solar equipment on the roof of a non-domestic building. The same 200 millimetre protrusion limit applies, along with a one metre height limit above a flat roof and a requirement to keep clear of the external edge.

Two points matter for a business. The generating capacity limit that previously applied to rooftop installations has been removed, so a large warehouse roof can be filled under the right. And Class J requires an application to the council for prior approval of the design and external appearance, with particular attention to the effect of glare on the occupiers of neighbouring land.

Prior approval is not a planning application, but it has a determination period and it can be refused, so it belongs in the programme. Standalone commercial arrays sit in a separate class with much tighter limits, and anything of real scale is an ordinary planning application supported by a Planning Statement.

Solar generating stations above the nationally significant infrastructure threshold are consented under the Planning Act 2008 regime rather than by the council. That threshold has changed, so check where it currently sits before scoping a large ground-mounted scheme.

The conditions attached to the rights

Both domestic classes carry the same two conditions, and they are easy to overlook.

1. The equipment must, so far as practicable, be sited to minimise its effect on the external appearance of the building and on the amenity of the area.
2. It must be removed as soon as reasonably practicable when it is no longer needed for microgeneration.

The first is a genuine constraint, not a formality. Where an installer proposes a street-facing slope and a rear slope would perform almost as well, the rear slope is what the condition points to, and a council can take enforcement action where the siting condition has plainly been ignored.

When a full application is needed

• The building is listed, or lies within the curtilage of a listed building.
• The panels project more than 200 millimetres, or sit above the ridge, or exceed one metre above a flat roof.
• A ground array exceeds nine square metres, stands within five metres of a boundary, or is the second installation in the curtilage.
• The wall faces a highway in a conservation area or World Heritage Site.
• An article 4 direction has withdrawn the right.
• Battery storage is proposed, which Part 14 does not cover.

Battery storage is the one that catches households out. A domestic battery inside a garage is usually fine as an internal alteration, but an external enclosure is development in its own right and needs to be assessed on its own terms.

For a new build, solar is normally part of the energy strategy rather than a separate question, and the calculations sit in an Energy Statement submitted with the application. Where the roof is being altered at the same time, the interaction with other householder rights matters, and permitted development for an upward extension works through how the allowances stack.

The safe sequence is short. Check the Order as it stands today, check whether the property is listed or in a conservation area, check for an article 4 direction on the planning data service, and if any answer is uncertain, apply for a lawful development certificate. It costs half a planning application fee and it settles the question for the life of the installation. Changes to these rights appear on the planning law updates timeline.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. A lawful development certificate is the only formal way to confirm that works are lawful.