Great Austins, the garden suburb in south Farnham built between 1903 and 1930, much of it by the local architect Harold Falkner in Queen Anne and Arts & Crafts styles, has been a conservation area since 1993. Its roofs are generous; its character deserves respect. That pairing, older streets with real character and roofs that suit solar, runs right through Farnham, and it raises two planning questions: what the rules say about panels, and what they say about a home battery. This guide covers both. For the battery itself, its size, cost and grid connection, see our page on battery storage in Farnham.
We are not planners, and we do not make planning or prior-approval applications on a customer’s behalf. What we do is screen a Farnham address for designations at the survey and flag them before a quote is written, so the conversation with Waverley Borough Council happens first rather than after the scaffolding goes up.
Farnham’s designations in one place
| Designation | Where | What it can change |
|---|---|---|
| Farnham Town Centre conservation area (1970) | The Georgian centre; its appraisal counted 388 listed buildings | Highway-facing walls, flat roofs, listed buildings |
| Wrecclesham (1973), Old Church Lane (1988), Waverley Abbey (1989), Shepherd and Flock (2021) | Beyond the town centre | Highway-facing walls, flat roofs |
| Great Austins (1993) | South Farnham garden suburb, with its own Waverley appraisal | Highway-facing walls, flat roofs |
| Surrey Hills National Landscape | Farnham is at its furthermost western point | Flat roofs and garden arrays |
| Listed buildings | Across the town, 388 in the centre alone | Class A does not apply; listed building consent |
Solar panels: what Class A now says for Farnham
The rule is Schedule 2, Part 14, Class A of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, as amended by S.I. 2026/896 and in force from 27 August 2026. On a pitched roof, panels must not protrude more than 0.2 m beyond the slope or sit higher than the highest part of the roof excluding chimneys, must be sited to minimise the effect on the building’s appearance, and must be removed when no longer needed. Inside all six Farnham conservation areas, the exclusion now covers only equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure that fronts a highway. A front roof slope in Great Austins or Wrecclesham keeps its rights on those ordinary conditions.
Three things change that answer. A flat-roof array in a conservation area, or inside the Surrey Hills National Landscape, needs an application to Waverley for a determination on whether prior approval of its appearance is required, before work starts. A listed building sits outside Class A altogether, and with 388 listed buildings counted in the town centre alone, that is a live question for many central Farnham addresses. And an Article 4 Direction can remove rights on the streets it names, so if your street has one, read the direction itself rather than a summary: a direction about roof alterations does not automatically remove the separate right to install solar.
A battery is a different question in Farnham
There is no battery-specific planning rule in the material we work from, so we will not quote one. What we can offer is planning sense. A battery fitted inside the house, in a garage, utility room or cupboard where the manufacturer’s installation instructions allow, changes nothing anyone sees from the street, and the street scene is what Farnham’s conservation-area controls are about. Waverley’s housing helps: at Census 2021 the borough’s stock was 40.4% detached and 27.5% semi-detached, with only around 13% of households in flats, so an indoor location is often available.
Outside is where to take care. A wall-mounted unit on a highway-facing wall in the Town Centre or Old Church Lane conservation areas is exactly the kind of visible equipment those controls are aimed at, so we would put it elsewhere or ask Waverley first. On a listed building, ask the council before anything is fixed to the fabric, inside or out. And if a battery needs a new cable route through a thick old wall on a Georgian street, that belongs in the survey conversation, not on the day of installation.
The Surrey Hills edge, and a boundary under review
Farnham sits at the furthermost western point of the Surrey Hills National Landscape, which covers 422 km², around a quarter of the county. National Landscape land is article 2(3) land, so it is treated like a conservation area for the flat-roof rule, and garden arrays under Class B carry their own prior-approval steps there. Natural England has been running a formal boundary variation covering 38 candidate areas that could enlarge the designation by up to around 30%, with the formal notice period running from November 2025 to 14 January 2026. We have not seen a confirmed outcome, so if your Farnham address is near the edge, check the current maps on surreyhills.org rather than assuming either way.
Planning is one of three sets of Farnham paperwork
The second is the network. Farnham’s town centre sits well inside SSEN’s Southern Electric Power Distribution area, about 10 km from the nearest other licence area. The installer notifies SSEN under G98 for type-tested systems up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW), before commissioning or within 28 days of it, or applies under G99, approved before work starts, for anything larger. That applies to a battery as much as to panels.
The third is the council’s wider policy. Waverley’s Climate Change and Sustainability Supplementary Planning Document, adopted on 18 October 2022, is a material consideration in planning decisions, which matters if your Farnham project does need an application. The council declared a climate emergency on 18 September 2019, and DESNZ records about 4,325 solar PV installations of all sizes across Waverley at the end of 2025, as first published, so panels on roofs in and around Farnham are far from unusual.
Before you ask for a Farnham quote
- Is the house listed, or within the curtilage of a listed building? If so, the conversation starts with Waverley.
- Is it in one of the six conservation areas, and does the street have an Article 4 Direction?
- Is the roof flat, and is the house inside the Surrey Hills National Landscape?
- Where would the battery go: a garage, utility room or cupboard, and how far is that from the consumer unit?
Then ask the installer to check the same list at the survey. Our guide to planning permission for solar panels in Surrey sets out the county-wide rules, and what size home battery you need covers sizing. Our page on solar panels in Farnham covers the roof itself, and solar panels in Surrey the county picture.
Sources: legislation.gov.uk, Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Schedule 2 Part 14 Classes A and B, as amended by S.I. 2026/896, in force 27 August 2026; The Farnham Society, Farnham’s conservation areas; IHBC South East, Farnham town-centre appraisal; Waverley Borough Council, Great Austins appraisal, Climate Change and Sustainability SPD (18 October 2022) and Carbon Neutrality Action Plan 2020–2030; Surrey Hills National Landscape and Natural England boundary variation notices; ONS Census 2021, TS044 and TS054 (Nomis); SSEN, Who we are; NESO, GB DNO licence-area boundaries (May 2024); Energy Networks Association, EREC G98 Issue 2 (10 March 2025); DESNZ, Renewable electricity by local authority 2014 to 2025 (published 29 September 2026).