Does the South Downs National Park change the planning rules for solar panels on a house in Petersfield? Petersfield sits wholly inside the park, yet under the rules as amended from 27 August 2026 a roof-slope array on a house there is permitted development on the ordinary Class A conditions; the park does not remove that right. What it adds is a prior-approval step for flat-roof and garden arrays. Our solar panels Petersfield page covers the installation itself; for Surrey readers the county-wide rulebook is our post on planning permission for solar panels in Surrey.
The short answer: the park does not remove roof-slope rights
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. Under Class A, solar equipment on a house is permitted development subject to conditions, and a National Park, which is article 2(3) land, does not take a roof-slope array outside Class A: a house in Petersfield keeps the same roof-slope rights as a house in Guildford, about 22 miles to the north-east.
The park matters for a flat-roof array, which on article 2(3) land needs a determination from the planning authority before work starts, and for stand-alone garden panels, which fall under Class B with their own prior-approval requirements. A listed building is outside Class A altogether and needs listed building consent.
Who decides: the South Downs National Park Authority
The South Downs National Park Authority has been the statutory planning authority for the whole park since April 2011, so a flat-roof determination or a Class B prior-approval matter for a Petersfield house goes to the park authority, not to East Hampshire District Council. The district council still publishes the local records, its 43 conservation-area appraisals among them, but the decision is the park authority’s.
Its Small-Scale Renewable Energy Technical Advice Note, issued in April 2022 and updated in December 2025, advises checking before any work starts and describes the permitted development position in national parks as restricted. The restrictions are the flat-roof determination and the Class B requirements, which apply because a National Park is article 2(3) land. The note is consistent with those steps and is not a statement that roof-slope rights are lost. Permitted development here is restricted in the ways the Order sets out, and no further.
The ordinary conditions for a roof slope
For a pitched roof, Class A attaches four conditions. The panels must not protrude more than 0.2 m from the roof slope. They must not sit higher than the highest part of the roof, excluding chimneys. They must be sited to minimise the effect on the appearance of the building. And they must be removed when no longer needed. Wall-mounted equipment has its own figures: 0.2 m where the wall abuts a highway, 0.4 m otherwise.
The Order does not treat a slope facing the road differently from one facing the garden: the only highway tests in Class A are the wall figure above and, in a conservation area, the exclusion covered below. The siting condition applies to every slope. A front slope in Petersfield is a survey question, not a planning problem.
Flat roofs and garden arrays: the steps the park adds
On a flat roof the equipment must not sit more than 0.6 m above the highest part of the roof; outside designated land that is the only extra condition. On article 2(3) land, which covers National Parks alongside conservation areas, National Landscapes, the Broads and World Heritage Sites, a flat-roof array also needs an application to the planning authority for a determination on whether prior approval of its appearance is required, made before work starts (the Order’s condition A.2(ba)). This is the main thing the park adds: a step rather than a refusal.
Stand-alone panels in the garden are Class B, not Class A, with their own limits, and on article 2(3) land Class B carries prior-approval requirements under the 2026 Order. We do not summarise those limits here; if a ground array is the only option for your plot, Class B needs reading in full before anyone measures up.
The Square conservation area and listed buildings
The town centre around The Square is a conservation area with an adopted Character Appraisal and Management Plan, one of 43 in East Hampshire. Under Class A as amended, the conservation-area exclusion applies only to equipment installed on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure which fronts a highway. Roof slopes, front ones included, are not restricted. So The Square adds the wall-and-balcony exclusion and nothing else.
Listed buildings are the clear exception. Class A does not apply to a listed building, or to a building within its curtilage, so panels on either need listed building consent. East Hampshire holds more than 1,630 listed buildings, 16 of them Grade I and 69 Grade II*, so for a town-centre property the listing check comes before the roof survey.
Article 4 Directions: read the direction itself
An Article 4 Direction is the one mechanism that can remove roof-slope rights on specific streets, and two readings matter. A direction that removes roof-alteration rights does not automatically remove the separate right to install solar; it has to name solar. And it applies only to the streets it names, so being in a conservation area that has one does not by itself mean your house is covered.
This post does not list directions for Petersfield; the only reliable source is the direction itself, and the South Downs National Park Authority’s planning pages are where to check whether one covers your street and whether its schedule names solar.
Petersfield’s roofs and what they generate
Petersfield had 6,859 households at the 2021 Census: 29.7% detached, 23.6% semi-detached, 23.0% terraced and 17.9% flats, with about 69% owner-occupied and 16.9% renting privately. The modern estates at Herne Farm and Bell Hill and the older streets around The Square sit under the same Order; what differs is which check comes first: the Article 4 check for a pitched-roof house that is not listed, the listing check for a town-centre property, and the prior-approval determination for a flat roof anywhere in GU31 or GU32.
PVGIS 5.3, the European Commission’s solar calculator, gives Petersfield about 4,128 kWh a year for a 4 kWp array at 35° facing due south with 14% system losses (PVGIS-SARAH3 2005–2023, run 8 September 2026, about ±135 kWh year to year), about 1,032 kWh per kWp and the highest figure on any of our town pages; Guildford comes out at about 3,974 kWh. East- and west-facing roofs generate less, and shading changes the answer more than the town does. The network operator is SSEN; the installer handles the network notification.
Local help in Petersfield
PeCAN, the Petersfield Climate Action Network, registered charity 1192778, offers free impartial home-energy advice, a sensible first call for a view that is not an installer’s. Switch Together, formerly Solar Together, is the group-buying scheme run by iChoosr with Hampshire’s councils; a group-buying price sits alongside an independent quote rather than replacing it. East Hampshire District Council has 331 panels and a battery on its own Monterey House offices, under its Climate and Environment Strategy 2024–29 (net-zero council by 2035 or sooner, district by 2050).
What to check before you ask for a quote
Three checks, in order. First, the designation: is the house listed, or within the curtilage of a listed building, and does an Article 4 Direction cover the street? Second, the roof: pitched, flat or garden, because each sits under a different rule above. Third, ask the installer to screen designations at the survey. We do: a listed building, a flat roof, a highway-facing wall or balcony in The Square, or an Article 4 street gets flagged before a quote is written, so the conversation with the authority happens first. We do not make planning or prior-approval applications on a customer’s behalf, and we would rather say so at the survey.
Our solar panel installation cost page explains how a quote is built up and why a real figure only comes from a survey, the solar panels Hampshire page covers the wider county, and the Petersfield page sets out what an installation in Petersfield involves. To book a survey for a home in or around Petersfield, use the contact page or call 0204 547 1892.
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; South Downs National Park Authority, Small-Scale Renewable Energy Technical Advice Note, April 2022, updated December 2025; East Hampshire District Council, conservation areas, listed buildings and Climate and Environment Strategy 2024–29; PeCAN (Petersfield Climate Action Network, registered charity 1192778); ONS Census 2021; PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission Joint Research Centre), PVGIS-SARAH3 2005–2023, run 8 September 2026.