Solar panels in Havering: garden suburb roofs, village greens and outer London homes

Havering is mostly a borough of houses with their own pitched roofs, from interwar semis in Hornchurch and Upminster to Edwardian Arts and Crafts homes in Gidea Park. That makes it straightforward solar territory for most homeowners. The things worth checking first are which of the borough's 11 conservation areas your street sits in, whether your home is covered by the Gidea Park Article 4 direction, and whether your roof needs work before panels go on.

Gidea Park: the Romford Garden Suburb

Gidea Park is the area where solar needs the most thought. It grew out of the 1911 exhibition, which showed 159 houses by 100 architects, followed by a 1934 Modern Homes exhibition with flat roofed houses in Brook Road. The council's appraisal describes steep, complex roofs in plain clay tile, with prominent chimneys and small dormers.

Havering made a new Article 4 direction for Gidea Park on 31 December 2015, confirmed on 24 June 2016. We read the notice. It does not mention solar or remove the national solar rights, but it does bring "other alterations to the roof" under control: on the front and side slopes for Level 1 properties, and on every slope for Level 2 properties. So the panels themselves can usually go ahead as permitted development, while roofing work that changes how the roof looks may need planning permission first. If your clay tile roof needs attention, it is worth reading whether you need a new roof before solar and planning both jobs together.

The 1934 flat roofed houses are a separate case. Since 27 August 2026, a flat roof in a conservation area needs a short prior approval application to the council before panels go on.

Village conservation areas and listed buildings

Havering's other conservation areas include Romford, Upminster's Corbets Tey, Cranham, Rainham, North Ockendon, St Andrews in Hornchurch and Havering-atte-Bower. The council's heritage pages also list Article 4 directions in Havering-atte-Bower (satellite dishes) and Cranham (gates, walls and fences). Neither of those controls concerns solar, but we could not find the direction documents to confirm their dates, so we check the designations for each address before we quote.

Under the national rules, the restriction in a conservation area or World Heritage Site applies to panels on a wall fronting a highway, not to a roof slope. Panels on a pitched roof, including a front roof slope, are normally permitted development as long as they sit no more than 0.2 m proud of the roof and below the ridge. Our guide to planning permission for solar panels in London covers this in more detail.

Listed buildings are different. Havering-atte-Bower alone has ten listed entries around the green, and Gidea Park has a group of listed exhibition houses. Any listed home needs planning permission and listed building consent. The council's 2026 draft appraisal for Havering-atte-Bower says panels are likely to be acceptable there mainly on rear slopes that cannot be seen from the street, which is a useful guide to what a heritage officer will look for.

Flats and newer blocks

Since 27 August 2026, blocks of flats have permitted development rights for solar for the first time. The right belongs to the block, through the freeholder or management company, not to an individual flat owner. If you live in a newer development in Romford or Rainham, the first conversation is with whoever manages the building.

Connecting to the grid

Havering is served by UK Power Networks. We handle the DNO notification or application as part of every installation, and size systems with the export limits in mind. You can read more about DNOs and export limits before your survey.

If you are in Gidea Park, Upminster, Hornchurch or anywhere else in the borough, we will check the planning position for your address and look at the roof properly before we recommend a system. Request a solar and battery quotation and we will take it from there.

Local planning information checked against London Borough of Havering sources on 28 October 2026. Planning designations change, so this is general guidance, not advice for a specific property.