Most Hendon homeowners asking about panels expect the planning answer to be complicated. For most houses it is not: roof-mounted solar is permitted development under a national order, with no application to make. Hendon does have two places where the answer needs more care, and a housing mix in which the person asking is often not the person who controls the roof. This guide sets out each case. For what an installation involves on Hendon’s semis, detached houses and blocks, see our page on solar panels in Hendon.
The rule itself is Schedule 2, Part 14, Class A of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, as amended from 27 August 2026. It reads the same in NW4 as anywhere in England. What changes from street to street in Hendon is the designation and the kind of building.
Hendon’s two conservation areas
Barnet has 16 conservation areas, and two of them lie in Hendon ward, both in NW4. They are treated differently.
Hendon The Burroughs. Its Article 4 direction appears in Barnet’s records on the government’s planning data platform with the solar class, Part 14 Class A, listed among the rights it removes. Barnet notes that it translated the old directions’ classes into their modern counterparts when it published those records, and most such directions predate solar permitted development. So we do not say that panels definitely need permission in The Burroughs; we say the direction has to be read for your address first.
Hendon Church End. No Article 4 direction is recorded. The national conditions apply, including the conservation-area rule below.
What the national rule allows on a Hendon house
On a pitched roof the panels must not protrude more than 0.2 m beyond the roof slope and must not sit higher than the highest part of the roof, excluding chimneys. They must be sited to minimise the effect on the building’s appearance, and removed when no longer needed. Inside a conservation area such as Hendon Church End, the exclusion applies only to equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure that fronts a highway. Roof slopes are not restricted, and the order draws no line between a slope facing the street and one facing the garden.
Hendon ward is 20.4% semi-detached and 12.8% detached (Census 2021), and those are the homes where this rule does most of the work. A Hendon semi outside The Burroughs, with no listing, normally needs no application at all.
Flat roofs and extensions
On a flat roof the equipment must not sit more than 0.6 m above the highest part of the roof. In a conservation area, which is article 2(3) land under the order, a flat-roof array also needs an application to Barnet for a determination on whether prior approval of its appearance is required, made before work starts. A flat-roofed rear extension in either Hendon conservation area is therefore a step to take, not a refusal.
Listed houses
Class A does not apply to a listed house or to a building within its curtilage. Listed building consent is needed for solar on a listed building at every grade. If your Hendon house is listed, the conversation starts with Barnet’s planning team, not an installer.
Blocks of flats and converted houses
This is where Hendon differs most from a typical suburb. In Hendon ward, 44.6% of households live in purpose-built flats and 13.3% in converted-house flats; in Colindale South the purpose-built share is 74.5%. Part 14, Class A covers a block of flats as well as a house, with its own conditions, but the right sits with whoever controls the building. A leaseholder or tenant can raise the idea; the freeholder or management company decides. With 47.2% of Hendon ward households renting privately, the landlord is often part of that conversation too.
A converted house is a less tidy case, because it is neither a single house nor a purpose-built block. Treat the planning position as something to confirm with Barnet rather than assume, and expect the freeholder and every leaseholder to need to agree.
Green belt and garden arrays
Green belt covers 22.7% of the Hendon constituency, 520 of its 2,280 hectares, on the government’s March 2025 figures. It is not article 2(3) land, so on its own it does not remove a house’s roof-mounted rights. Panels on a frame in the garden are a separate class, Class B, with height limits and, in a conservation area, a prior-approval step where the array would sit nearer a bounding highway than the house does.
Building regulations and the network
Planning is one set of paperwork. Solar installations must also comply with the Building Regulations, notified to Barnet’s Building Control, and the electrical work is certified under our NAPIT registration (member 73495). Hendon’s town centre sits in UK Power Networks’ Eastern area, about 1.4 km from its London area, so the operator is confirmed by postcode. If a battery’s inverter or a wall-mounted unit would sit on a street-facing wall in The Burroughs, ask Barnet first; our battery storage in Hendon page covers siting.
What to check before you ask for a quote
First, the designation: The Burroughs, Church End, a listing, or none. Second, the building: house, purpose-built block or converted house, and who controls the roof. Third, the roof: pitched, flat or a garden frame. We screen all three at the survey and flag anything that needs Barnet’s view before a quote is written; we do not make planning applications on a customer’s behalf. Our guide to what is in a solar quote, line by line explains where any planning time shows up, and how long an installation takes covers the rest. Hendon is part of our solar panels in North London coverage, and you can ask for a survey through our contact page.
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; planning.data.gov.uk, conservation-area, article-4-direction-area, article-4-direction and permitted-development-right (14A) datasets, London Borough of Barnet; Historic England, Consents and Permissions for PV Systems; ONS Census 2021, TS044 and TS054, Hendon, Colindale South wards, via Nomis; MHCLG, Local authority green belt statistics for England 2024-25; UK Power Networks, licence boundaries open data. All read 15 October 2026.