The answer first
Nearly one household in four in Nantwich North and West lives in a flat (23.9%), and 11.7% there heat with electricity alone. Permitted development covers roof panels on blocks of flats, but the building owner or management company controls the roof. Leases usually require consent for alterations, and plug-in panels may not be fixed to balconies.
How many Nantwich households live in flats
Flats are a bigger part of the housing in town than in the countryside around it. The Census 2021 ward tables show the split clearly.
| Area | Flats | Electric-only heating | Social rented | Private rented |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nantwich North and West | 23.9% | 11.7% | 20.0% | 17.2% |
| Nantwich South and Stapeley | 14.1% | 5.6% | 5.2% | 20.0% |
| Cheshire East | 10.5% | 5.6% | 11.6% | 15.5% |
Nantwich North and West stands out. Flats account for 23.9% of its households, more than double the borough’s 10.5%, and 11.7% of households there heat with electricity alone, about 2.1 times the borough rate. One in five households in the ward rents from a social landlord. In the village wards flats are scarce, between 2.5% and 3.2% of households. The full ward profiles are on Nantwich homes by ward.
Who controls the roof
A flat owner normally holds a lease of the flat itself and little else. The roof, the outside walls and the structure usually stay with the building owner, which may be a landlord company, a residents’ management company owned by the flat owners together, or a housing association. Where the flat owners run the building together through a residents’ management company, a proposal can go to its directors and, if need be, to a meeting of members. Whoever it is, panels on the roof are their decision, and they will also want to know who pays, who maintains the system, and what happens when the roof itself needs work.
For tenants the chain is longer still. A private tenant in a leasehold flat needs the agreement of their landlord, who in turn needs the building owner’s consent; a social tenant’s housing provider usually owns or manages the whole block and plans work across all its homes. How renting affects solar more widely is covered on renters and landlords.
What the planning rules allow on a block
Class A of Part 14 of the General Permitted Development Order, the class that deals with panels on buildings, applies to a block of flats as well as to a house, and SI 2026/896 revised its conditions from 27 August 2026. For a block they mirror those for houses: panels on a pitched roof may project no more than 0.2 m from the surface and may not rise above the roof’s highest part, while on a flat roof the limit is 0.6 m.
Two places change the picture. In a conservation area, the exclusion for a block of flats is its walls, so panels may go on the roof but not on the elevations; a flat roof in a conservation area also needs the council’s prior-approval decision before work starts. And a listed block, or a flat inside a listed building, cannot rely on permitted development at all: panels there require both planning permission and Listed Building Consent, however small the array; check the National Heritage List for the address. The detail for central Nantwich is on the conservation-area page and listed buildings and solar.
Three ways a block can use the power
- The landlord’s supply. Panels feed the communal circuits that run stair lighting, door entry, lifts or pumps. It is the simplest design, and every flat shares the effect through the service charge rather than through its own bill.
- Individual flats. The roof is divided and each share is wired, through its own inverter, to a particular flat’s meter. That means more equipment, longer cable runs and an agreement about which flat gets which part of the roof.
- A shared arrangement. Some designs split one system’s output among several flats. They need specialist design and metering, and the arrangements for sharing, billing and future changes have to be written down.
Whichever route is chosen, exports can earn a payment under the SEG scheme for whoever holds the meter the system connects to, and the connection itself must be notified or approved; see grid connection.
Electric heating and the timing problem
A flat heated only by electricity uses most of its power in the colder months and often in the evening or overnight, which is when panels produce least. Solar can still meet part of the daytime load from appliances and, where there is a cylinder with an immersion element, heat water in summer. It cannot carry the heating through a December evening. A battery shifts some daytime output into the evening, but in midwinter there is little surplus to store. The trade-offs are set out on batteries.
What the lease says
Leases differ, but most contain clauses on alterations, on the use of common parts and on how the building owner recovers costs. Fixing anything to the outside of the building, running cables through common parts or using roof space normally needs written consent, and the lease may set out how that consent is sought. Where the building owner pays for panels on the block, the cost may come back to leaseholders through the service charge, and larger works can bring formal consultation duties.
Before anyone commits, settle in writing who owns the system, who insures and maintains it, who receives any export payment, what happens when the roof is repaired, and how the arrangement passes on when a flat is sold. A solicitor who knows leasehold property can read the lease against the proposal. A buyer of a flat in the block will ask about all of it later, as buying a home with solar explains.
The roof’s own life
Panels on a block stay up for many years, so the state of the roof beneath them matters as much as the panels. If the tiles, slates or flat-roof membrane are close to needing renewal, it usually makes sense to do that first, because lifting the array and putting it back later brings a second round of access and labour. On a flat roof the fixing method deserves a question of its own: weighted frames add load to the structure, while fixings through the membrane must be sealed so that they do not let water in. The building’s insurer will want to know about the system, and so may any lender with a charge over the block.
Plug-in kits and the balcony
Plug-in panels, small kits that connect through a household socket, are now treated as solar PV for planning purposes. The 2026 amendment also rules out attaching them to a balcony, an enclosure, a timber wall or any timber-clad part of a building. For most flats that removes the balcony, the place a kit would usually go. Any other position on the outside of a block still needs the building owner’s written permission, and the kit itself should be one designed and sold for use in the UK. The same timber rule, as it applies to framed houses, is covered on timber-framed homes.
A route for a flat owner or tenant
- Find out who owns and manages the building and the roof.
- Read the lease, or the tenancy agreement, for the clauses on alterations.
- Check whether the building is listed or inside the conservation area.
- Talk to other residents; a request from several flats carries more weight.
- Put a written proposal to the building owner, asking which of the three designs they would consider.
To check a particular block against these rules, send a question with the address; the reply comes by email.