Hitchin’s main conservation area was designated on 14 March 1969, and on 9 October 2012 North Herts Council made an Article 4 direction for it. A direction like that removes some permitted development rights on the streets it names, so it is fair to ask whether it reaches panels on a Hitchin roof. The short answer is that the council’s summary of the direction does not mention solar equipment, but because roof alterations and solar sit in different parts of planning law, the direction itself is what has to be read for an address inside it.
This guide takes each layer in turn, ending with the battery. For what an array would generate and cost on your house, see our page on solar panels in Hitchin.
The national starting point
Roof-mounted solar on a house in England is permitted development under Schedule 2, Part 14, Class A of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, as amended by S.I. 2026/896 from 27 August 2026. On a pitched roof the panels must not protrude more than 0.2 m beyond the slope or sit higher than the highest part of the roof, chimneys excluded. They must be sited to minimise their effect on the building’s appearance and removed when no longer needed.
Semis are Hitchin’s largest group of homes, 33.4% of households in the built-up area at Census 2021, with terraces at 19.4% and detached houses at 17.7%. Outside the exceptions below, those four conditions are the whole test for all of them, with no application to make.
What the 2012 direction covers
North Herts Council’s conservation pages, updated on 4 August 2026, list two Article 4 directions, both made on 9 October 2012: one for the Hitchin Conservation Area and one for Stockens Green. In the Hitchin one, permission is needed for enlarging, improving or otherwise altering a house, alterations to its roof, porches fronting a highway, hard surfacing, chimneys and flues, gates, walls and fences fronting a highway, and exterior painting fronting a highway.
Solar is not on that list. The Order’s roof-alteration class, in Part 1, expressly excludes solar photovoltaic equipment, which has its own class in Part 14, and a direction that removes roof-alteration rights does not by itself remove the right to install solar. A summary is not the full text, though, so for any address inside the Hitchin Conservation Area we read the direction itself before quoting, and where it is unclear we would rather you asked North Herts Council.
Four conservation areas, one rule for roof slopes
The town has four conservation areas. Alongside the 1969 one, Butts Close, Hitchin Hill Path, and Hitchin Railway and Ransom’s Recreation Ground have character statements the council adopted on 26 July 2011. On the council’s list, only the Hitchin Conservation Area among the four carries an Article 4 direction.
In all four, the national exclusion is narrow. Since 27 August 2026 it covers only equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure that fronts a highway, so roof slopes, front ones included, keep their rights on the ordinary conditions. A flat roof is different. Conservation areas are article 2(3) land, and there a flat-roof array needs an application to the council for a determination on whether prior approval of its appearance is required, before work starts; the equipment must also stay within 0.6 m of the roof’s highest part. A flat-roofed rear extension in the Butts Close conservation area, say, means an application first: a step, not a refusal.
West of the town: the Chilterns
North Herts Council places the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, designated in 1964, between Hitchin, Lilley and Hexton, following the escarpment of the Chiltern Hills. An AONB is article 2(3) land too, so the same flat-roof step applies inside it, while roof slopes on a house keep their permitted development rights.
Garden arrays fall under Class B, and on article 2(3) land one within 5 metres of the property boundary needs a prior-approval determination. Towards the district’s western edge, we confirm at the survey whether an address is inside the AONB.
Listed buildings and green belt
North Hertfordshire has over 2,500 listed buildings. Class A does not apply to a listed house, or to a building within its curtilage, so panels need listed building consent whatever the roof.
Green belt is the opposite case. Government statistics put 46.9% of the district, 17,590 of its 37,540 hectares, in the green belt at 31 March 2025, but green belt does not change a householder’s roof rights: a house beyond Hitchin’s edge follows the same Class A conditions as one near the centre.
And the battery?
We know of no planning class written specifically for home batteries, so we work from the house. A battery indoors, in a garage, utility room or under the stairs, changes nothing on the outside, so the 2012 direction is unlikely to come up. A unit on an outside wall inside the Hitchin Conservation Area, or on a listed building, is one to raise with North Herts Council before fitting. Where a unit fits in a Hitchin semi or terrace is covered on our page on battery storage in Hitchin. A battery fitted with panels or on its own carries 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, then 5%, as our guide to VAT on solar panels and batteries explains.
Flats and rented homes
Everything above is a house question. 29.1% of Hitchin households live in a flat, maisonette or apartment, and for them the freeholder’s consent and roof access come before planning. 19.3% rent privately or live rent-free and 15.2% rent from a social landlord, so for about a third of the town (our arithmetic) the landlord decides first. North Hertfordshire was allocated £1.5 million of Warm Homes: Local Grant funding, which covers privately owned homes rated EPC D to G, owner-occupied or privately rented, so a social tenancy falls outside it.
What to check before you ask for a quote
Check three things: whether your house is in one of the four conservation areas (and, for the Hitchin one, what the 2012 direction says), whether it is listed, and what kind of roof the panels would go on. We screen all three at the survey and flag anything that needs North Herts Council before a quote is written. We do not make planning or prior-approval applications on a customer’s behalf. For the same rules across neighbouring districts, see our solar panels in Hertfordshire hub.
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), and Part 1 Class C para C.1(d)(ii); North Herts Council, Hitchin Conservation Area page, About conservation areas and Article 4 directions (updated 4 August 2026) and Constraints to development (updated 20 March 2025); ONS, Towns and cities, characteristics of built-up areas, Census 2021 (tables 5c and 6c); MHCLG, Local authority green belt statistics for England 2024-25; DESNZ, Warm Homes: Local Grant successful local authorities (updated 2 July 2026); HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6; UK Power Networks licence boundaries open dataset (17 December 2024).