Transform Your Home with Sustainable Building

Often not. Under householder permitted development rights in England, a single-storey rear extension can go up to 3 metres beyond the rear wall of the original house (4 metres for a detached house) and up to 4 metres high, without a planning application.

You can go up to 6 metres (8 metres detached) by applying for prior approval first: the council notifies your neighbours and has 42 days to decide.

Other conditions apply: extensions and outbuildings together can cover no more than half the land around the original house, materials must look similar to the house, and eaves within 2 metres of a boundary can be no higher than 3 metres. Flats and maisonettes do not have these rights, and they are reduced in conservation areas, on listed buildings and where an Article 4 direction applies.

The house as it was first built, or as it stood on 1 July 1948 if it was built before then. Any extensions added since (by you or previous owners) count towards the permitted development limits.

Usually not. Solar panels on a house in England are normally permitted development if:

• on a pitched roof, they stick out no more than 0.2 metres from the roof slope and are no higher than the highest part of the roof (excluding chimneys);
• on a flat roof, their highest part is no more than 0.6 metres above the highest part of the roof;
• on a wall, they stick out no more than 0.2 metres on a wall next to a road, or 0.4 metres elsewhere.

They must be sited, as far as practicable, to minimise their effect on the look of the building, and removed when no longer needed. They are not permitted development on listed buildings, and wall-mounted panels on a wall facing a road are not allowed in conservation areas. These rules were updated on 27 August 2026, which also added rules for plug-in (balcony) solar and for ground-mounted panels.