The same set of panels can go up on one house with no paperwork at all and need full consent on the next. On a new-build at the edge of Kendal, you’ll almost certainly go ahead without asking anyone. A listed farmhouse outside Coniston is different. There you need planning permission and listed building consent before a single bracket goes on the roof.
Plenty of our customers live somewhere like that farmhouse. If your home is in the Lake District or Yorkshire Dales National Park, the Arnside and Silverdale or Forest of Bowland National Landscape, or one of the many conservation areas across Cumbria and North Lancashire, the rules below apply to you.
The rules changed in August 2026
A new order updating permitted development for solar came into force on 27 August 2026. It added rules for balconies and plug-in solar and changed the limits for panels on walls and in gardens. There’s a 12-month transition, so until 26 August 2027 you can work to either the old rules or the new ones. Everything below follows the new version.
What counts as protected land
Planning law calls it article 2(3) land, and most planners just say designated land. It covers National Parks, National Landscapes (the new name for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty), conservation areas and World Heritage Sites.
It adds up quickly round here. Almost all of the Lake District National Park is also a World Heritage Site, because the World Heritage boundary follows the park’s original 1951 boundary. The Yorkshire Dales National Park reaches across to Sedbergh and Dent. The Arnside and Silverdale National Landscape runs along the coast north of Carnforth, and the Forest of Bowland covers a large part of North Lancashire. Add the conservation areas in towns and villages across the region and a surprising number of homes are affected.
Roof panels: usually fine
On a house, roof-mounted panels are permitted development almost everywhere, National Parks included. On a pitched roof they can’t stand more than 0.2 metres proud of the slope, and nothing can go higher than the highest part of the roof, chimneys aside. They should also be sited to keep the effect on the building’s appearance to a minimum. In practice that means tidy rows of all-black panels.
Flat roofs are different. Panels can stand up to 0.6 metres above one, but on designated land you need prior approval from the planning authority before you start, which is lighter than a full planning application and still adds a few weeks.
Walls, balconies and gardens
Wall-mounted panels are less common on houses, and this is where the protected-area rules bite hardest. In a conservation area or World Heritage Site, which means most of the Lake District, panels can’t go on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure that fronts a highway unless you get planning permission. Everywhere else they can stick out up to 0.4 metres from the wall, or 0.2 metres where the wall sits right beside a road.
Ground-mounted panels in a garden are allowed up to 9 square metres of panel. How tall they can be depends on where they sit. Within 5 metres of the boundary and in front of the house, the limit is 1 metre. Elsewhere within 5 metres of the boundary it’s 2 metres, and further back you can go to 4 metres. In a World Heritage Site they can’t be closer to the road than the house or within 5 metres of the boundary, and in a conservation area, putting them closer to the road than the house needs prior approval. Most people choose the roof.
Listed buildings: always ask first
Listed buildings get no permitted development rights for solar, and neither does anything in their grounds. That means a planning application and listed building consent whatever the size of the system, even for a few panels on a garden store. Cumbria has thousands of listed buildings, many of them farmhouses and barns, so check the National Heritage List for England before you plan anything. It’s free online and takes two minutes.
Watch for Article 4 directions as well. Councils can use them to remove permitted development rights in particular conservation areas, and where one applies, even an ordinary roof installation needs permission.
Who decides
It depends where you live. The two National Park Authorities handle planning inside the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. Outside the parks your council decides, which around here usually means Westmorland and Furness, Cumberland or Lancaster City Council.
How we handle it
Before we design anything, we check your address against the listing, the conservation area maps, any Article 4 directions and the park and National Landscape boundaries. Most systems can go up under permitted development, and we’ll tell you if yours is one of them. Anything that needs prior approval or a full application, we draw up and submit for you.
We design with the planning officer in mind too. All-black panels sit quietly on a slate roof, and a neat layout with hidden cable runs makes consent far easier to get.
Solar on barns, sheds and fields follows a separate set of rules for non-domestic buildings. We cover those on our farms and rural properties page.
If you’re in the Lake District, the Dales or anywhere in between, book a free survey and we’ll tell you exactly what your home needs before you spend a penny. There’s more about our work across the county on our Cumbria page.
This guide reflects the planning rules in England as of September 2026.