Plug-in solar has arrived in Britain. From 27 August 2026, compliant plug-in solar kits can legally be connected to a normal domestic socket, while a separate change to the planning rules in England alters the permitted development rights for solar panels on houses and for stand-alone solar in gardens.
The important bit is that these are two different legal changes. Being allowed to plug a product into a socket does not automatically mean its position on your house, balcony, wall or in your garden is permitted development.
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What changed on 27 August?
SI 2026/896 — the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) Order 2026 — came into force on 27 August 2026. It amends Part 14 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO, and only three parts of Part 14 are changed by this Order:
- Class A — solar equipment on domestic premises
- Class B — stand-alone solar equipment within domestic curtilages
- paragraph P — the interpretation provisions for Part 14
The Order does not create a new planning class called “plug-in solar”. Instead, paragraph P now defines plug-in solar and changes the definition of solar PV so that it expressly includes plug-in solar. That brings a qualifying plug-in installation within Classes A and B, subject to all the relevant limitations and conditions.
What does “plug-in solar” actually mean?
For Part 14, the new definition is solar photovoltaics intended to connect to the relevant domestic premises’ electricity installation using a standard plug and socket. The Order also defines a roof enclosure to include a balustrade, railing, parapet or other enclosure installed on a roof.
Separately, the energy-safety changes allow compliant plug-in solar equipment to be placed on the market and connected to domestic mains sockets across Great Britain. The Government says each kit can produce up to 800W, potentially supplying up to 20% of an average home’s electricity use and saving a household up to £110 a year. Those are Government estimates rather than guaranteed savings. The product regime is concerned with electrical and product safety; SI 2026/896 is concerned with planning permission in England.
If you want to see the sort of products now appearing on the market, there are examples of plug-in solar panels available here. That link is for product examples, not an indication that any particular product or installation complies with the planning or electrical rules.
Houses get new Class A limits
The biggest planning changes are for houses. Under the rewritten Class A, solar PV or solar thermal equipment on a wall of a dwellinghouse may project by up to 0.2 metres where the wall abuts a highway, or up to 0.4 metres in other cases.
The same 0.2m/0.4m distinction now applies to solar equipment mounted on a balcony enclosure or roof enclosure. On a pitched roof the familiar 0.2m projection limit remains and the equipment cannot be higher than the highest part of the roof, excluding a chimney. On a flat roof, the top of the equipment can be no more than 0.6 metres above the highest part of the roof.
In a conservation area or World Heritage Site, Class A does not permit equipment on a wall, balcony or roof enclosure which fronts a highway. Solar on a scheduled monument is also excluded.
There is a new plug-in-specific fire-safety limitation too: plug-in solar cannot use Class A where any part would be installed on a wooden wall, balcony or enclosure, or on a timber-clad part of the exterior of the dwellinghouse.
What about blocks of flats?
Class A still covers both a dwellinghouse and a block of flats, but SI 2026/896 deliberately separates the limitations applying to each. The new relaxed wall, balcony and roof-enclosure measurements described above are written into the dwellinghouse limb, not copied wholesale to blocks of flats.
For flats, the existing Class A framework broadly remains, with the listed-building wording revised and the new rule preventing plug-in solar from being installed on wooden walls, balconies, enclosures or timber-clad parts of the block. Anyone dealing with a block should therefore check the block-of-flats limb rather than assuming the new house limits apply.
Stand-alone solar in the garden has changed as well
Class B has also been split between blocks of flats and dwellinghouses. For a house, the old blanket 5m boundary restriction is replaced by a sliding height regime. The lowest applicable limit wins:
- 1 metre where the installation is within 5m of the curtilage boundary and forward of a wall forming part of the principal elevation
- 2 metres where it is within 5m of a curtilage boundary
- 2 metres in a conservation area where it is nearer the highway than the nearest part of the house
- 4 metres in any other case
The surface area of the panels remains limited to 9 square metres. The rewritten house limb does not carry forward the old one-installation limit or the old 3m maximum array dimension, although other restrictions still apply.
There are extra restrictions in World Heritage Sites, and Class B remains unavailable within the curtilage of a listed building or on a scheduled monument. Plug-in stand-alone solar is also excluded where any part would be installed on a wooden fence, gate, wall or other enclosure.
For a block of flats, the older Class B pattern is largely retained, including the one-installation, height, 5m boundary and array-size limitations, alongside the new timber restriction for plug-in solar.
There is a new prior approval trap on protected land
The amended Class B condition now requires a prior approval process where stand-alone solar is either in a conservation area and nearer the highway than the nearest part of the house or block, or on article 2(3) land and within 5m of the curtilage boundary. The council considers the impact of the appearance of the equipment on the protected land.
Class A also retains its existing prior approval requirement for solar PV or solar thermal equipment on a flat roof on article 2(3) land.
Visual impact still matters
The permitted development conditions have not disappeared. Class A still requires solar equipment, so far as practicable, to be sited to minimise its effect on the external appearance of the building and the amenity of the area. Class B similarly requires stand-alone solar, so far as practicable, to be sited to minimise its effect on the amenity of the area.
That matters because permitted development is not simply a dimensional exercise. Staying under 0.4m, 2m or 4m does not make the conditions vanish.
Listed buildings remain a separate world
The amended Class A excludes solar on a dwellinghouse, or on a building in its curtilage, where the dwellinghouse is a listed building. The equivalent rule applies to listed blocks of flats. Stand-alone Class B solar is excluded within the curtilage of a listed building.
Even where planning permission is available in some other situation, listed building consent is a separate regime. Works affecting the special architectural or historic interest of a listed building may need listed building consent regardless of whether planning permission is required.
Likewise, living in a leasehold flat or rented property raises a different question again: permitted development does not override a lease, tenancy, freeholder or landlord requirement for consent.
Can I install plug-in solar without planning permission?
Often, yes — but not just because it plugs into a socket. You need to work through the planning right that covers the proposed location. A panel fixed to a house or curtilage building is normally a Class A question; a free-standing array in the garden is a Class B question.
You should separately check:
- that the installation fits the relevant Part 14 permitted development limits and conditions
- whether the property is in a conservation area, World Heritage Site or other article 2(3) land
- whether the building is listed or within the curtilage of a listed building
- whether prior approval is required
- any landlord, freeholder, lease or tenancy restrictions
- that the equipment satisfies the separate electrical and product-safety regime
If Part 14 does not cover the installation, you may need to make a normal planning application.
The transitional rule could save an installation that no longer fits
Article 6 of SI 2026/896 is easy to miss and worth flagging to anyone advising during the next year.
Where development was permitted by Class A or Class B immediately before 27 August 2026, but ceases to be permitted because of the amendments in this Order, the developer may still carry out that previously permitted development until the end of 26 August 2027.
So during the transitional year, an adviser cannot safely look only at the new wording. If a proposal falls foul of a new restriction, it may still be necessary to ask whether it would have been permitted under the wording in force on 26 August 2026.
This does not turn an installation which was never permitted development under the old rules into permitted development. It protects only development that genuinely satisfied the former Class A or Class B immediately before the change.
Planning law and the 800W announcement are not the same thing
The Government’s 27 August plug-in solar announcement says compliant kits of up to 800W can now be used across Great Britain. The separate product specification and regulatory work deals with how those products can safely connect to domestic electrical installations.
SI 2026/896 does something different: it changes the English GPDO so that plug-in solar falls expressly within the solar planning rights, while altering where and how those rights can be used.
The easy headline is “plug-in solar is legal”. The more useful planning answer is: yes, but still check the GPDO before you drill, hang or stand anything in position.
Published: 27th August 2026 — plug-in solar planning permission rules checked against SI 2026/896 as made.
