England's permitted development regime for domestic solar will change on 27 August 2026 under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) Order 2026. The legislation.gov.uk text shows the instrument was made on 29 July 2026, laid before Parliament on 30 July 2026 and signed by Florence Eshalomi, Minister of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Order amends Part 14 of Schedule 2 to the 2015 General Permitted Development Order, the part of the planning code that grants planning permission automatically for certain renewable energy works. Although the amending instrument formally extends to England and Wales, its practical effect is to amend the England GPDO.
The amendment does two main things. It splits the solar rules so that dwellinghouses and blocks of flats are dealt with separately, and it adds a fresh set of limits aimed at newer forms of equipment, especially plug-in solar. That separation matters. Under the earlier drafting, installers, householders and planning officers had to work through provisions that treated houses and flats together. The revised text remains technical, but it is clearer about which limits apply to a private house and which apply to a block of flats or its curtilage.
For Class A, which covers solar PV and solar thermal equipment attached to domestic premises, the Order now states the house rules in more specific terms. On dwellinghouses, wall-mounted equipment cannot project more than 0.2 metres where the wall abuts a highway, or 0.4 metres in other cases. Similar 0.2 metre and 0.4 metre projection limits now apply to equipment fixed to balcony enclosures and roof enclosures. The same Class A text also tightens height controls on roofs. On a pitched roof, equipment must not project more than 0.2 metres beyond the roof slope and must not rise above the highest part of the roof, excluding any chimney. On a flat roof, the highest part of the equipment must not be more than 0.6 metres above the highest part of the roof, again excluding any chimney.
The revised house rules keep sensitive locations firmly in scope. On land in a conservation area or within a World Heritage Site, solar PV or solar thermal equipment cannot be installed under Class A on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure that fronts a highway. The same class is also unavailable for works on scheduled monuments and for works on a listed dwellinghouse or a building within its curtilage. A new materials-based restriction is added for plug-in solar. Where any part of the plug-in system would be installed on a wooden wall, balcony or enclosure, or on a timber-clad part of the exterior of a dwellinghouse, the development falls outside permitted development and would need a different planning route if it is to proceed.
For blocks of flats, the amendment is narrower but still significant. The Order now states expressly that Class A development is not permitted where solar PV or solar thermal equipment would be installed on a block of flats, or on a building within its curtilage, if the block is listed. It also applies the same new plug-in solar restriction to wooden walls, balconies and enclosures, and to timber-clad parts of the exterior of a block of flats. That drafting matters in practice because flats often involve shared roofs, shared elevations and leasehold interests. Even where planning permission is granted by the GPDO, separate landlord, freeholder, management company or building control approvals may still be needed. The revised planning text does not remove those other consent routes, but it does narrow the cases in which planning permission is automatic.
Class B, covering stand-alone solar equipment within the curtilage, the land belonging to the property, is also rewritten to distinguish between blocks of flats and dwellinghouses. For dwellinghouses, the amended text says permitted development is unavailable where siting and height cross certain thresholds, where installations fall within the curtilage of a listed building or on a scheduled monument, or where the total surface area of the solar panels would exceed 9 square metres. The Order also introduces a new restriction for plug-in solar fixed to wooden fences, gates, walls or other means of enclosure. For protected settings, the text adds further constraints where stand-alone solar is proposed in a World Heritage Site, within 5 metres of the curtilage boundary in certain cases, or in positions that are more visually exposed to the highway.
One procedural change is likely to matter most for local planning authorities and installers. The amended Class B conditions now require a prior approval application before development begins where stand-alone solar is both within a conservation area and nearer to a highway that bounds the curtilage than the nearest part of the dwellinghouse or block of flats, or on article 2(3) land, the GPDO category for certain protected land, and within 5 metres of the curtilage boundary. In practical terms, some schemes that might previously have been treated as straightforward permitted development will now need the authority to decide whether appearance effects on the conservation area or protected land require prior approval. For project scheduling, that adds an extra step before installation rather than an outright prohibition.
The Order also updates the interpretation provisions in Part 14. It inserts new definitions of 'plug-in solar', 'roof enclosure', 'standard plug' and 'socket', with the latter two tied back to the Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994. 'Roof enclosure' is defined broadly enough to cover items such as balustrades, railings and parapets, and the definition of 'solar PV' is amended so that plug-in solar is expressly included. That is a drafting change with wider practical effect, because consumer products marketed as plug-in units are now addressed directly in the GPDO rather than being left to implication.
Transitional provisions soften the immediate effect of the new restrictions. Where a solar development was permitted under Class A or Class B immediately before 27 August 2026 but will cease to be permitted after the amendments take effect, the developer has until the end of 26 August 2027 to carry it out. The Explanatory Note says no full impact assessment has been produced because no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen. For homeowners, leaseholders, installers and planners, the immediate message is that domestic solar can no longer be treated as a single planning category. Building type, roof form, frontage to a highway, listed status, conservation area location, timber cladding and the method of connection will all affect whether permission is automatic after 27 August 2026.