Do you need planning permission for solar panels in Hertfordshire? For most houses, no. The national rule makes roof panels on a house permitted development, and in most of the county’s conservation areas that holds for every roof slope. Hertfordshire’s differences are narrower and sharper than most counties’: one St Albans street and one Bishop’s Stortford conservation area where the right is taken away or brought into planning, two garden cities with consent regimes of their own, and a band of the Chilterns where flat roofs need a step first. This guide sets each one out for the nine councils our Hertfordshire towns sit in: Hertsmere, Watford, St Albans, Dacorum, Welwyn Hatfield, East Herts, Stevenage, North Herts and Broxbourne. For what an installation involves, see our page on solar panels in Hertfordshire.
The rule since 27 August 2026
The rule is Schedule 2, Part 14, Class A of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, as amended by S.I. 2026/896 and in force from 27 August 2026. We re-read the revised text on legislation.gov.uk on 19 October 2026. On a house, roof-slope panels 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), are sited to minimise their effect on the building’s appearance and the amenity of the area, and are removed when no longer needed. On a flat roof the limit is 0.6 m above the highest part of the roof. Wall-mounted equipment has its own figures: 0.2 m where the wall abuts a highway, 0.4 m otherwise.
One clarification matters in Hertfordshire, because several of its Article 4 directions are about roofs. The general roof-alterations class, Part 1 Class C, expressly excludes the installation of solar PV or solar thermal equipment. So a direction that removes Class C rights, the right to alter a roof, does not on its face remove the separate Part 14 right to install solar. What counts is whether a direction names Part 14 or solar equipment, and in Hertfordshire two do.
Conservation areas across the nine councils
The numbers vary widely. East Herts has 42 conservation areas, Hertford’s (first designated in 1967) and Bishop’s Stortford’s among them. Dacorum has 25, including the Hemel Hempstead conservation area designated on 7 October 1968. St Albans district has 19, and the government’s planning data platform records the St Albans city conservation area as 27 separately named parts. Hertsmere has 15, none named for Borehamwood. Watford and Welwyn Hatfield have ten each, Watford’s running from Civic Core and Nascot to Oxhey and Watford Heath, Welwyn Hatfield’s including Old Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City’s town centre and Beehive area. Stevenage has seven, from Old Town High Street (1969) to Broadwater and Orchard Road (2007), and Broxbourne six, including Churchgate in Cheshunt.
Living in one of them does not, on its own, stop you fitting roof-mounted solar. Under Class A as amended, the conservation-area exclusion applies only to equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure which fronts a highway. Roof slopes are not restricted, and the clause makes no distinction between a slope facing the street and one facing the garden. So a house in Old Hatfield or the Hitchin Conservation Area keeps its roof-slope rights on the ordinary conditions, unless it is listed or a direction says otherwise.
The Article 4 directions that do, and do not, touch solar
An Article 4 direction lets a council remove permitted development rights in a defined area. These are the Hertfordshire directions we have read, or read the council’s summary of, and what each says.
St Albans: Cunningham Avenue removes the right. The Cunningham Avenue Article 4 Direction came into effect on 3 November 2014 and withdraws permitted development rights for installing solar PV or solar thermal equipment on a house or block of flats there. Of the district’s directions on the planning data platform, it is the only one whose record lists the solar class; Verulam and Fishpool Street, Sopwell Lane and Albert Street, and Childwickbury list house and boundary classes only. Do not read Cunningham Avenue as “St Albans conservation areas restrict solar”: they do not. Our solar panels in St Albans page covers the rest of the district.
East Herts: the Bishop’s Stortford Conservation Area. East Herts made two directions for the conservation area on 14 June 2017 and confirmed them on 15 November 2017. The council’s leaflet says the direction for all properties brings the installation of renewable energy equipment on dwellings within the planning system, on all elevations. Inside the conservation area, a house needs planning permission for panels whichever way the roof faces; see solar panels in Bishop’s Stortford. On 15 October 2026 the council’s conservation-areas page listed Article 4 directions only for Bishop’s Stortford, so on that page Hertford’s conservation area has none.
Watford: read the Nascot directions for the property. Watford’s 2013 Conservation Areas Management Plan records directions made on 4 April 2013 for named properties, in Nascot covering alterations to the section of the roof facing the street, and Macdonnell Gardens has had a direction since January 2012. The Nascot directions remove the roof-alterations right rather than naming solar, but the plan itself warns that panels on a slope facing the highway may need planning permission where a direction applies. The direction texts are scanned images we could not read in full, so the honest position is to check the direction for your address, as our solar panels in Watford page explains.
North Herts: Hitchin and Stockens Green. Both directions were made on 9 October 2012. The council’s summary covers alterations to houses and roofs, porches, hard surfacing, chimneys and flues, and gates, walls, fences and painting fronting a highway, with no mention of solar. Read with the Class C point above, that suggests roof-slope solar is untouched, but a summary is not the direction, so check before work starts; our solar panels in Hitchin page has the town’s detail.
Hertsmere: The Royds and Elstree Village. The Royds conservation area in Potters Bar has a direction confirmed in July 2015. The council’s 2014 design guide lists the roof changes it controls, such as re-tiling, gables, dormers and rooflights, without listing solar, and welcomes panels while asking for them on roof planes not prominent from the street. Elstree Village’s conservation area also carries a direction; its text is a scan we could not read. A separate Potters Bar direction, in force from 6 May 2027, concerns houses in multiple occupation and has nothing to do with panels.
Directions that are not about roofs. Hatfield’s cover houses in multiple occupation (2011) and extra storeys on blocks of flats (2022); Stevenage’s cover employment land and small HMOs; Broxbourne’s covers town centres and business parks. Dacorum’s published list names streets in Berkhamsted, Tring and nearby villages, but none in Hemel Hempstead.
Garden-city consents: separate from planning
Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth add a second gatekeeper that the planning system does not replace. Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council’s Estate Management Scheme covers most homes in Sherrards and Handside wards and parts of Haldens, Peartree, Hollybush and Howlands, and the council describes it as entirely separate from planning. It grants consent where panels sit on a rear or side roof slope, leaves a principal slope to the case officer’s judgement and rules out wall-mounted panels in any position. On its fee schedule, updated 1 April 2026, a photovoltaic application is an Environmental Project with no application fee; a retrospective one costs £281.
In Letchworth, most dwellings need the Heritage Foundation’s prior written consent for external alterations, and leaseholders need consent under their lease as well. Its design principles, revised in May 2026, put panels in its Heritage Character Area on rear elevations, not visible from the public realm, and allow any roof slope in its Modern Character Area if the other requirements are met. Batteries and inverters need consent too and must not be visible from the public realm. Where one half of a pair of semis already has panels, the Foundation expects the other to mirror them. For the estate’s boundaries see solar panels in Welwyn Garden City, and for Letchworth our guide on whether a Letchworth neighbour’s panels mean yours must match takes that further.
Flat roofs, the Chilterns and garden arrays
A flat-roof array on article 2(3) land, which under the Order includes conservation areas and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, needs an application to the council for a determination on whether prior approval of its appearance is required, made before work starts. In North Herts that reaches beyond the conservation areas: the Chilterns AONB, designated in 1964, lies between Hitchin, Lilley and Hexton along the escarpment. So a flat-roofed extension on a house in the Hertford conservation area or inside the AONB means an application to East Herts or North Herts first. It is a step, not a refusal, and a pitched roof in the same place keeps its ordinary rights.
Panels in the garden fall under Class B, not Class A. Under the 2026 Order, a prior-approval determination is needed first where any part sits in a conservation area and nearer to a highway bounding the curtilage than the house, or on article 2(3) land within 5 metres of the curtilage boundary. Class B has further limits of its own, so read it against your plot before anyone measures up.
Listed buildings
Class A does not permit solar on a house, or a building within its curtilage, if the house is listed, and Historic England says consent is required for any type of PV installation on a listed building. Hertfordshire has a great many: East Herts alone has approximately 4,000 listed buildings and North Herts over 2,500, and 23 buildings in Cheshunt’s Churchgate conservation area are listed. Listed does not mean never. Watford Borough Council has fitted 144 panels to its Grade II listed Town Hall and 36 to the Colosseum. It means the conversation starts with the council’s conservation team, not with an installer.
Flats, and homes you rent
Class A covers a block of flats as well as a house, with its own limits: no more than 0.2 m beyond a wall or pitched roof slope, not above the highest part of the roof, 0.6 m on a flat roof, and in a conservation area not on a wall fronting a highway. A listed block is excluded. That matters in the south of the county, where flats concentrate: Borehamwood’s built-up area is 34% flats, maisonettes or apartments, Hertford’s 30.5%, and 28.8% of Watford households live in purpose-built flats. Planning is rarely the hurdle, though. UK Power Networks says the building owner’s permission is needed before solar or storage work starts on a multi-occupied building, so the freeholder or management company comes first. If you rent, the landlord decides; in Welwyn Garden City’s built-up area 30.8% of households rent from a social landlord.
Building regulations, MCS and UK Power Networks
Planning is one of three sets of paperwork. Historic England notes that all PV installations must comply with Building Regulations Parts A, B and P, with the council’s Building Control notified. We are a NAPIT member (73495), MCS-certified for solar PV and battery storage with certification held via NAPIT, and HIES Consumer Code members (HCE/A/1392).
The third is the network. Hertfordshire’s cables and lines were run by Eastern Electricity and are now UK Power Networks’, and on UKPN’s boundary data all 14 of our Hertfordshire town centres sit in its Eastern licence area. A system up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW) is notified under G98; larger ones need G99 approval before work starts. The installer handles it, separately from any planning or estate consent. What an installation costs once the consents are clear is on our solar panel cost in Hertfordshire page, the line-by-line national picture on solar panel installation cost, and the income-linked schemes on solar panel grants in Hertfordshire.
Where to check with your council
| Council | Conservation areas | Article 4 position for roof solar |
|---|---|---|
| St Albans City and District | 19 | Cunningham Avenue withdraws the solar right (2014); others list house and boundary classes only |
| East Herts | 42 | Bishop’s Stortford Conservation Area: renewable energy equipment on dwellings needs permission, all elevations (2017) |
| Watford | 10 | Nascot (2013) and Macdonnell Gardens (2012) directions: read the one for your property |
| North Herts | Hitchin, Letchworth, Norton, Willian and others | Hitchin and Stockens Green (2012): summary lists roof alterations, not solar; Chilterns AONB flat-roof step |
| Hertsmere | 15 | The Royds (2015): design guide lists no solar; Elstree Village: text not read |
| Welwyn Hatfield | 10 | HMO and extra-storey directions, not solar; Estate Management Scheme consent in Welwyn Garden City |
| Dacorum | 25 | Listed streets in Berkhamsted, Tring and villages; none in Hemel Hempstead |
| Stevenage | 7 | Employment land and HMOs only |
| Broxbourne | 6 | Town centres and business parks only |
What to check before you ask for a quote
Check three things, in order. First, the designation: is the house listed, inside a conservation area, inside the Chilterns AONB, or inside the Welwyn Garden City scheme or Letchworth’s Heritage Foundation area? Second, the direction: if you live on Cunningham Avenue or in the Bishop’s Stortford Conservation Area, the planning application comes first; in Nascot, Hitchin’s conservation area, The Royds or Elstree Village, read the direction for your address. Third, the roof: pitched, flat or garden, because each sits under a different rule above.
Then ask the installer to screen designations at the survey. We do, and anything that needs a decision from the council or the estate is flagged before a quote is written. We do not make planning, prior-approval or estate applications on a customer’s behalf, and we would rather say so at the survey than leave you to find out later. For a battery as well as panels, see our battery storage page.
Get a Hertfordshire quote through our contact page, or call 0204 547 1892. For the same national rule applied to another county’s councils, see our guide to planning permission for solar panels in Bedfordshire.
Sources: legislation.gov.uk, Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Schedule 2 Part 14 Classes A and B and Part 1 Class C, as amended by S.I. 2026/896, in force 27 August 2026 (Part 14 re-read 19 October 2026); Historic England, Consents and Permissions for PV Systems; St Albans City and District Council, Cunningham Avenue Article 4 Direction and conservation areas; planning.data.gov.uk article-4-direction and conservation-area datasets; East Herts District Council, Bishop’s Stortford Conservation Area Article 4(1) Directions leaflet, Conservation Areas page and Hertford Conservation Area Appraisal (2017); Watford Borough Council, Conservation Areas Management Plan SPD (July 2013) and news, 13 June 2023; North Herts Council, About conservation areas and Constraints to development; Hertsmere Borough Council, Conservation areas, The Royds design guide (2014) and Potters Bar Article 4 notice; Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council, Conservation areas, Article 4 Directions and Estate Management Scheme, with wgc-ems.org policies, design guide and fee structure; Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, Solar Panels Design Principles (revised May 2026); Dacorum Borough Council, Conservation areas; Stevenage Borough Council, Article 4 Directions; Borough of Broxbourne, Churchgate heritage trail and Article 4 direction; ONS, Towns and cities, characteristics of built-up areas, Census 2021, and Census 2021 TS044 (Nomis); UK Power Networks, Our history, licence boundaries open data, and Solar and storage: cost, time and what’s involved; ENA EREC G98 Issue 2 (run-10 pack, read 12 October 2026). Read 15 October 2026 unless dated.