Solar Panel Installation in Surrey

Usually not — roof-mounted solar on a house in England is permitted development under Class A of Part 14 of the GPDO, as amended from 27 August 2026, provided the panels project no more than 0.2 m from a pitched roof, sit no higher than the highest part of the roof excluding chimneys, and rise no more than 0.6 m above a flat roof. Surrey has more protected landscape than most counties: the Surrey Hills National Landscape covers 422 km², around a quarter of the county, and towns such as Guildford and Farnham have conservation areas. The rule there is narrower than most people think — the exclusion applies to equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure fronting a highway, not to roof slopes — while a flat-roof array on conservation-area or National Landscape land needs a prior-approval determination from the council first, listed buildings always need listed building consent, and an Article 4 direction can remove rights street by street. We flag any planning question we spot at survey stage.

Most are, but not all — and we’d rather rule yours out early than install something that underperforms. The strongest candidates have an unshaded roof face between south-east and south-west, which Surrey’s detached and semi-detached stock offers more often than most of England. Heavy tree cover is the county’s most common complication; leafy plots in the Hills and along the North Downs sometimes shade a roof for enough of the day to change the numbers. A survey settles it either way.

No — domestic installations of solar panels and batteries are zero-rated for VAT in Great Britain until 31 March 2027, under the government’s energy-saving materials relief. That’s a meaningful saving on a four-figure purchase, and it applies automatically through your installer; there’s nothing to claim.

It depends on your usage, roof and tariff — a self-generated unit of electricity is a unit you don’t buy, and exported surplus earns money through the Smart Export Guarantee. Larger Surrey homes with daytime usage (home workers, heat pumps, EVs) tend to see the strongest returns. We’ve set out the full picture, with worked examples, in our guide to how much solar panels can save.

No. A National Landscape (the former AONB designation) is article 2(3) land, and the only change that makes for a house is that 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. Panels on a pitched roof slope stay permitted development on the ordinary conditions — no more than 0.2 m proud of the slope and no higher than the highest part of the roof, excluding chimneys. Listed buildings need listed building consent wherever they are, and a conservation area inside the Hills adds its own narrow exclusion for equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure fronting a highway. The 422 km² of the Surrey Hills covers around a quarter of the county, so this comes up a lot at survey.

We ran the European Commission’s PVGIS 5.3 tool rather than quote a generic yield. On the same parameters for every town — a 4 kWp array at 35° facing due south, 14% system losses, building-mounted, PVGIS-SARAH3 data for 2005–2023 — Guildford comes out at about 3,974 kWh a year and Woking at about 3,984 kWh, which is roughly 993 to 996 kWh per kWp. For scale, Ofgem’s typical domestic consumption value from 1 July 2026 is 2,500 kWh a year, so a 4 kWp array generates more than a typical home uses across the year; how much of it you use yourself depends on when you are at home, which is exactly what the survey asks. East- and west-facing slopes generate less, and shading changes the number more than the town does.