Four kinds of roof cover most of Borehamwood: the shared roof of a block of flats, the single rear slope of a terrace, the half-roof of a semi and the whole roof of a detached house. Each changes where solar panels can go, where a battery can sit and who has to say yes. The 2021 Census shows how the town divides between them.
In the Borehamwood built-up area, home to 39,765 people at the 2021 Census, 34% of households lived in flats, maisonettes or apartments, 28.8% in terraced houses, 26.8% in semi-detached and 9% in detached houses (ONS). For what a WD6 roof generates and Hertsmere’s scheme position, see our page on solar panels in Borehamwood.
Who owns the roof
Tenure decides as much as house type. 22.4% of Borehamwood households own outright and 33.1% with a mortgage or through shared ownership, so a little over half own their home (our sum). 26.0% rent from a social landlord, well above the 17.3% across Hertsmere, and 18.6% rent privately or live rent-free. For more than four households in ten, then, panels or a battery start with a housing association, a private landlord or a freeholder rather than with an installer.
Terraces: one slope to work with
A terrace usually offers its rear slope, sometimes its front. Under Schedule 2, Part 14, Class A of the General Permitted Development Order, panels on a house’s pitched roof are permitted development if they protrude no more than 0.2 m beyond the slope, sit no higher than the highest part of the roof excluding chimneys, and are sited to minimise their effect on the building’s appearance. None of Hertsmere’s 15 conservation areas carries Borehamwood’s name, so for a WD6 terrace that is not listed and not in a conservation area, those conditions are the planning test, and the size of the array comes down to the slope, which way it faces and what the chimneys and roof windows leave free.
Terraces are 28.8% of Borehamwood households, and in a mid-terrace the battery is harder to place than the panels. With no side passage, it goes on a rear wall, in a back extension or in a garden building within a sensible cable run of the consumer unit. Hallways and the space under the stairs are escape routes and best kept clear, and a loft only suits a unit kept within its manufacturer’s temperature range and reachable for servicing.
Semis and detached houses
Together, semis and detached houses are 35.8% of Borehamwood households (our sum). They usually give the most choice: a semi’s rear and side slopes, a detached house’s several roof planes, and for the battery an attached garage, a utility room or a side wall near the consumer unit, which keeps the cable short. Where two slopes face east and west rather than one facing south, an array split across both spreads generation across the day. As a reference point, PVGIS 5.3 gives about 3,944 kWh a year from a 4 kWp array facing due south at 35° in central Borehamwood, for an unshaded roof.
Flats and maisonettes
A third of Borehamwood households live in flats, maisonettes or apartments, and here the roof is rarely one person’s to alter. Class A of the Order covers blocks of flats as well as houses, with its own conditions, but planning is not the first hurdle. UK Power Networks says the building owner’s permission is needed before solar or storage work starts on a multi-occupied building, and a leaseholder needs the freeholder’s consent under the lease. With 26.0% of households renting socially, that building owner is often a housing association. A shared array also raises who pays, who maintains it and whose supply the electricity reaches, so it is a conversation for the whole block.
Where the roof is out of reach, a battery on its own is sometimes possible inside a Borehamwood flat, charged overnight on a cheaper rate if your tariff offers one, though the building owner still has a say over where it is fixed. Our guide to battery storage without solar panels covers that route, and our page on battery storage in Borehamwood covers placement in WD6 flats and houses.
Energy efficiency: a head start
Borehamwood’s homes rate better than many older suburbs. ONS analysis of EPC records to March 2025 gives the four statistical areas it assigns to Borehamwood median scores of 70 to 73, which is band C, with between 55% and 69% of dwellings at band C or above; England’s median is 69. Where a home already reaches band C, fabric work may be less pressing, so the solar conversation can start sooner than it would in a band D house.
Green belt and the conservation area next door
Green belt covers 78.9% of Hertsmere on the government’s figures for March 2025. It shapes where new homes can go but does not take away a householder’s permitted development rights for roof solar. Elstree Village, next to Borehamwood, is one of Hertsmere’s 15 conservation areas and carries an Article 4 direction, so a house there should have the direction checked first, and a listed building needs consent anywhere. Solar panels and home batteries carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, as our guide to VAT on solar panels and batteries explains, and our solar panels in Hertfordshire hub covers the rest of the county.
Sources: ONS, Towns and cities: characteristics of built-up areas, England and Wales, Census 2021, tables 1c, 5c and 6c (Borehamwood, E63004665); ONS Census 2021, TS054, Hertsmere (E07000098), via Nomis; ONS, Energy efficiency of housing in England and Wales (28 October 2025), MSOA table 3a, with the ONS MSOA to built-up-area lookup; legislation.gov.uk, Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Schedule 2, Part 14, Class A, as amended by S.I. 2026/896, in force 27 August 2026; UK Power Networks, Solar and storage: cost, time and what’s involved; MHCLG, Local authority green belt statistics for England 2024-25; Hertsmere Borough Council, Conservation areas in Hertsmere and Elstree Village Conservation Area; GOV.UK, Warm Homes: Local Grant successful local authorities (updated 2 July 2026); PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission JRC), PVGIS-SARAH3 2005–2023, run 15 October 2026; HMRC VAT Notice 708/6.