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Class H satellite dishes: size, number and siting rules
Class H can grant planning permission for satellite dishes and other microwave antennas on a qualifying house or within its curtilage in England. It covers installation, alteration and replacement.
Check the total number, each antenna’s size, its position and the house’s planning history. A dish within the size allowance can still fail because of its roof or chimney position.
Need help with permitted development?
Permitted development can avoid a full planning application, but only if the right applies and every relevant limit and condition is met. Planning Geek can check the planning history, Article 4 directions and other restrictions, and help with a lawful development certificate or prior approval where needed.
How many antennas, and how big?
Count antennas on the house and anywhere within its curtilage together. After the work there must be no more than two.
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| Check | Limit |
|---|---|
| One antenna | No more than 1 m in length |
| Two antennas | Only one may exceed 0.6 m; neither may exceed 1 m |
| Any antenna on a chimney | No more than 0.6 m in length and must not protrude above the chimney |
| Each antenna’s cubic capacity | No more than 35 litres |
The length test applies in any linear direction. For an oval dish, checking only the shorter dimension is not enough. Projecting feed elements, reinforcing rims, mountings and brackets are excluded from the length measurement under H.3(b).
For example, one 0.9 m dish and one 0.6 m dish meet the pair’s length test. Two 0.7 m dishes do not. The capacity and siting requirements remain separate.
How high can an antenna sit?
- On a roof without a chimney: its highest point must not be higher than the highest part of the roof
- On a roof with a chimney: its highest point must not exceed the lower of the chimney top and a point 0.6 m above the highest ridge tiles
- Installed on a chimney: it must also satisfy the separate 0.6 m length limit and must not protrude above the chimney
The word lower matters. If a chimney top is 0.3 m above the highest ridge tiles, that chimney top sets the roof-mounted antenna’s height limit. If the chimney top is 0.9 m above the ridge, the 0.6 m-above-ridge limit is lower and controls.
Conservation areas and other protected land
Class H is not automatically excluded throughout all article 2(3) land. Instead, it has extra restrictions. On that land, Class H does not permit an antenna:
- On a chimney, wall or roof slope which both faces onto and is visible from a highway
- In the Broads, on a chimney, wall or roof slope which both faces onto and is visible from a waterway
- On a building which exceeds 15 m in height
These are the statutory tests, not a general rule banning anything visible from a public place. A 15 m building is not caught by the “exceeds 15 m” limb, although every other restriction still applies.
Position carefully and remove redundant equipment
An antenna installed on a building must, so far as practicable, be sited to minimise its effect on the building’s external appearance. When it is no longer needed for reception or transmission, it must be removed as soon as reasonably practicable.
These are conditions of the right. They apply in addition to the measurements.
Which properties can use Class H?
- The property must be a dwellinghouse, not a flat, maisonette or building containing flats
- Class H is unavailable where permission to use the house as a house arose only through Part 3 Classes G, M, MA, N, P, PA or Q
- A dwellinghouse built under Part 20 is excluded
- A relevant planning condition or Article 4 direction may remove the right
Class H has no separate blanket listed-building exclusion, but attaching equipment to a listed building may require listed building consent. The existing building and use must also be lawful.
Flats, other buildings and ordinary aerials
A microwave antenna is a satellite antenna or terrestrial microwave antenna. Class H does not expressly provide a general permission for every conventional television or radio aerial; those installations need their own planning assessment.
For antennas on other qualifying buildings, including some blocks of flats, see Class C of Part 16 for buildings below 15 m, and Class B of Part 16 for buildings or structures 15 m or more in height. Those rights have their own requirements.
Do you need an application?
Class H has no prior approval procedure. Where every requirement is met, the GPDO grants planning permission. A certificate of lawfulness for proposed development can formally confirm the position before installation. Permission from a freeholder or other private rights remain separate.
Sources and Class H legislation
Checked against the current GPDO Part 1 and article 2 definitions. The government householder technical guidance provides explanations and examples, but must be read with subsequent amendments to the legislation.
Read the Class H legislation
Class H – microwave antenna on a dwellinghouse
Permitted development
H. The installation, alteration or replacement of a microwave antenna on a dwellinghouse or within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse.
Development not permitted
H.1 Development is not permitted by Class H if—
(a)permission to use the dwellinghouse as a dwellinghouse has been granted only by virtue of Class G, M, MA, N, P , PA or Q of Part 3 of this Schedule (changes of use);
(b)it would result in the presence on the dwellinghouse or within its curtilage of—
(i)more than 2 antennas;
(ii)a single antenna exceeding 1 metre in length;
(iii)2 antennas which do not meet the relevant size criteria;
(iv)an antenna installed on a chimney, where the length of the antenna would exceed 0.6 metres;
(v)an antenna installed on a chimney, where the antenna would protrude above the chimney; or
(vi)an antenna with a cubic capacity in excess of 35 litres;
(c)in the case of an antenna to be installed on a roof without a chimney, the highest part of the antenna would be higher than the highest part of the roof;
(d)in the case of an antenna to be installed on a roof with a chimney, the highest part of the antenna would be higher than the highest part of the chimney, or 0.6 metres measured from the highest part of the ridge tiles of the roof, whichever is the lower;
(e)in the case of article 2(3) land, it would consist of the installation of an antenna—
(i)on a chimney, wall or roof slope which faces onto, and is visible from, a highway;
(ii)in the Broads, on a chimney, wall or roof slope which faces onto, and is visible from, a waterway; or
(iii)on a building which exceeds 15 metres in height ; or
(f)the dwellinghouse is built under Part 20 of this Schedule (construction of new dwellinghouses).
Conditions
H.2 Development is permitted by Class H subject to the following conditions—
(a)an antenna installed on a building must, so far as practicable, be sited so as to minimise its effect on the external appearance of the building; and
(b)an antenna no longer needed for reception or transmission purposes is removed as soon as reasonably practicable.
Interpretation of Class H
H.3 For the purposes of Class H—
(a)the relevant size criteria for the purposes of paragraph H.1(b)(iii) are that—
(i)only 1 of the antennas may exceed 0.6 metres in length; and
(ii)any antenna which exceeds 0.6 metres in length must not exceed 1 metre in length;
(b)the length of the antenna is to be measured in any linear direction, and excludes any projecting feed element, reinforcing rim, mounting or brackets.
Explore GPDO Part 1
Choose the work you are planning. These guides explain the English rules for houses.
- Part 1 overview
Start here for permitted development at a house - Class A: house extension and alteration
Rear and side extensions, windows and doors - Class AA: additional storeys
Build upwards above an existing house - Class B: roof enlargement
Dormers and hip-to-gable enlargements - Class C: other roof alteration
Rooflights and other roof alterations - Class D: porch
Porches outside an external door - Class E: outbuilding
Garden buildings, pools and other incidental development - Class F: hard surface
Driveways, paths and patios - Class G: chimney and flue
Chimneys, flues and soil and vent pipes - Class H: satellite dish
Microwave antennas on the house or in its curtilage - Paragraph I: definitions
Terms used in Part 1
Page Updated: 25th September 2026