In most towns, a home battery raises one planning question at most. In Harlow it can raise two, because the new town’s homes carry a second layer of control that most of the country does not have: the restrictive covenant written into the deeds. Harlow Council publishes clear guidance on covenants and on its Article 4 directions for solar panels, but neither says anything about a battery unit. This guide sets out what each layer does say, and how we read it for a battery. For siting and the grid, see our guide to battery storage in Harlow.
A battery and panels are usually planned together, so both appear below. The short version: indoor batteries rarely trouble either layer; outdoor units and street-facing panels are where you check first.
Layer one: the covenant in your deeds
Harlow Council says most Harlow homes carry restrictive covenants, including homes built by Harlow Development Corporation and later sold, and council homes bought under Right to Buy. Covenant permission is separate from planning permission, so a project can be fine on one and need consent on the other.
For panels, the council’s guidance is helpful: roof-mounted solar panels do not need covenant permission unless the property is in a conservation area. For a battery it is silent. Our reading is practical rather than legal. A battery fitted inside the house, in a garage, a utility room or a cupboard, alters nothing visible from outside. A unit on an external wall is a visible change, and if that is the plan, ask the council’s covenant team before work starts. In Church Langley the council has decided not to administer covenants, so the developers’ original covenants in your deeds are the ones that apply.
Layer two: planning permission
For a house, roof panels are normally permitted development under Class A of Part 14 of the General Permitted Development Order, as amended from 27 August 2026: no more than 0.2 m proud of a pitched roof slope and no higher than its highest part, sited to minimise the effect on the building’s appearance. In a conservation area, the right is lost only for equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure fronting a highway, and a flat-roof array needs a prior-approval determination first. A listed house has no Class A rights and needs listed building consent.
Harlow has ten conservation areas, and three sets of Article 4 directions matter here.
Old Harlow. Four directions, three in force since 1 June 2012 and the High Street direction since 27 February 2017, require a planning application for putting up or replacing solar panels on a roof visible from the road, at named addresses on Bury Road, New Road, the High Street, Old Road, Park Hill, Mulberry Terrace and St John’s Avenue. If your house is on that list, a rear slope is the obvious place to look first.
Mark Hall North. The direction in force since 28 October 2023 applies to all houses in the conservation area and covers alterations to the front roof slope under Part 1 of the order. It does not list solar equipment, and the Part 1 roof-alteration class expressly excludes solar panels, which sit in Part 14. Covenant permission for panels is still needed there, because it is a conservation area.
Churchgate Street. The direction in force from 4 March 2026 covers porches, chimneys and alterations visible from the road. It does not list solar equipment either.
Where a battery sits in all this
We know of no battery-specific planning rule, and we will not invent one. What we can offer is planning sense that fits both of Harlow’s layers. A battery indoors changes nothing anyone sees from the road, which is what the conservation-area controls and the Article 4 directions are concerned with, and an indoor unit is the position least likely to raise a covenant question. That suits Harlow’s housing in any case: 45.0% of households in the built-up area live in terraced houses, and most terraces have no side wall to hang a unit on, so the battery usually goes on an inside wall near the meter or a rear wall reached through the house.
Outdoors, keep a unit off any street-facing elevation, and in Old Harlow, Mark Hall North or Churchgate Street ask the council first. On a listed building, ask before anything is fixed to the fabric, inside or out.
Tenants, leaseholders and Right to Buy owners
Across Harlow district, 29.3% of households rented socially at the 2021 Census, 23.9% directly from the council, and 15.4% rented privately. For all of them, the landlord decides before covenants or planning come into it. The Warm Homes: Local Grant does not help council tenants, since GOV.UK limits it to privately owned homes. Owners of flats, 25.0% of the district’s households, need the freeholder’s consent. A Right to Buy owner controls the house but inherits the covenant, so the covenant check above applies.
A checklist for a Harlow address
- Is the home in one of Harlow’s ten conservation areas, and is it listed?
- Is it one of the named Old Harlow addresses under an Article 4 direction?
- Who administers the covenant: Harlow Council, or the original developer, as in Church Langley?
- Will the battery go indoors, or on an external wall?
- Do you own the home, or does a landlord or freeholder need to agree?
We check these for your address before quoting. Our guide to what size home battery you need covers the sizing side. If panels are part of the plan, our page on solar panels in Harlow covers the roof and the covenant rules for solar, and the Essex solar panels hub covers schemes across the county.
Sources: Harlow Council, Covenant control, Conservation areas, Article 4 directions (Old Harlow; Mark Hall North and the confirmed direction of 28 October 2023; Churchgate Street); legislation.gov.uk, GPDO 2015 Schedule 2 Part 14 Class A (as amended by S.I. 2026/896) and Part 1 Class C; ONS Census 2021, TS054 Tenure and TS044 (Nomis), Harlow E07000073; ONS, Towns and cities: characteristics of built-up areas, Census 2021, table 5c; GOV.UK, Apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant.