Solar panels in Westerham

Westerham at a glance

Westerham’s houses, and who can agree to panels

At the 2021 Census, the Westerham and Crockham Hill ward (the town, Crockham Hill village and the rural land around them) had 1,936 households. Most lived in a house: 584 detached, 562 semi-detached and 494 terraced. Of the 295 households in a flat or maisonette, 31 lived in a flat inside a commercial building, such as over a shop. The national house and flat rules may not cover that kind of building, so the council is the first call.

Who owns the roof decides who signs off panels. 1,306 households (67.5%) owned their home, below the 71.5% across Sevenoaks District, while 312 (16.1%) rented privately, against 13.4% district-wide, and 285 rented from a social landlord. For those 597 renting households, panels start with the landlord’s agreement.

The housing is old, too. In the ward’s three LSOAs, the Valuation Office Agency dates 740 of 2,120 properties (34.9%) to before 1919, close to double the district’s 18.6%. Building regulations normally apply to roof-mounted panels, and they include whether the roof can take the load, so on a Westerham roof of that age the timbers are assessed before a layout is fixed.

The conservation area around the Green

Sevenoaks District Council designated the Westerham Conservation Area in 1973 and extended it in 1994, and its 2015 review found no case for moving the boundary. That year’s appraisal describes an area of “some 36 hectares” holding “about 100 listed buildings”, taking in St Mary’s Church and the Green, Quebec House, Pitts Cottage, the Kings Arms Hotel and the Squerryes Court Estate with part of its park, from the A25 junction with Hosey Hill in the east to the edge of Squerryes Court by Goodley Stock Road in the west.

The appraisal lists the position of solar panels among the permitted development rights restricted in conservation areas. The national rules have moved on since, most recently on 27 August 2026. As they stood on 15 October 2026, a pitched roof inside the boundary can take panels without an application, on the street side too, if they stand no more than 0.2 m off the slope and no higher than the top of the roof. What the boundary rules out is a wall, balcony or roof enclosure fronting a highway, so for a house that faces the road, the roof is where panels can go.

Listing is the bigger constraint around the Green. A listed house falls outside those rights, so panels need planning permission. The appraisal adds that Listed Building Consent is needed for alterations affecting a listed building’s character, “internally as well as externally”, so the cable route and inverter position can matter as much as the panels. It also weighed an Article 4 direction for minor alterations such as windows and doors, and judged it not “an effective measure to take at this time”, so check the council hasn’t made one since. For the full list of limits and how to check an address against the council’s maps, see do you need planning permission for solar panels in Kent.

Kent Downs AONB, Green Belt and Crockham Hill

The appraisal describes the countryside around Westerham as Green Belt and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Natural England’s boundary data shows the AONB takes in the town itself: both the TN16 1AA postcode in the centre and Crockham Hill village fall inside the Kent Downs AONB, designated in 1968. That makes them article 2(3) land, where a flat-roof array (up to 0.6 m above the roof) needs prior approval from Sevenoaks District Council, inside the conservation area or not. Green Belt status doesn’t change the householder solar limits.

Crockham Hill has no conservation area on the council’s list of 41, so the wall and balcony restriction that applies around Westerham Green doesn’t reach it.

What a south-facing Westerham roof generates

The EU Joint Research Centre’s PVGIS model gives 4,164 kWh a year for a 4 kWp array at 35°, facing south on an unshaded roof in central Westerham, about 1,041 kWh per kWp. Turn the same array east and the model drops to 3,325 kWh; turn it west and it gives 3,286 kWh, about a fifth less either way. Which way the roof faces matters far more than where in the district it is: Sevenoaks town models at 4,192 kWh, under 1% above Westerham. The table below turns Westerham’s south-facing figure into first-year value, with and without a 10 kWh battery, and is solar worth it in Kent works through the payback.

Connecting to UK Power Networks

TN16 1AA sits in Elexon grid supply point group _J, so Westerham is on UK Power Networks’ South Eastern Power Networks licence, not the London Power Networks licence that serves Chislehurst and Bickley. G98 covers a home whose generating units total 16 A per phase or less, about 3.68 kW on a single-phase supply, and UK Power Networks is told within 28 days of commissioning. Anything larger, with a battery counted in the total, needs a G99 application before the work starts. Coutts’ guide-priced systems include the G98 or G99 paperwork.

From Keston, over the Kent border

Our office at Glebe Farm Business Park, Keston stands in the London Borough of Bromley, with Westerham 5.8 miles to the south-south-east in a straight line. For a Westerham roof, then, the planning rules we check are Sevenoaks District Council’s, not Bromley’s. Every system on our solar panel installation service is designed and installed by our own qualified electricians, and TrustMark’s register (licence 2677315) lists Coutts Electrical as an MCS-certified solar PV installer, which the Smart Export Guarantee requires.

Grants and VAT for a Westerham home

Sevenoaks District Council has its own Warm Homes: Local Grant allocation, £1,670,000 on the government’s list updated 2 July 2026. It is for lower-income households in privately owned homes rated EPC D to G, owner-occupied or privately rented, and the work it funds can include solar panels. Whatever your income, the VAT on an installed system in a Westerham home is 0% until 31 March 2027, for the panels and any battery fitted with them or later; on 1 April 2027 it goes back to 5%. The grant rules and the VAT relief are set out in solar panel grants in Kent.

Across Sevenoaks District, DESNZ counted 3,282 solar PV installations at the end of 2025, up 84% from 1,783 at the end of 2020, with 16.7 MW installed. Before new circuits go into an older house, an EICR in Westerham shows the state of the existing wiring, and general testing and repairs are on our electrician in Westerham page.

What solar could be worth on a Westerham roof

PVGIS 4,164 kWh a year for this town. Illustrative first-year figures, not a guarantee: import 26.32p/kWh (Ofgem energy price cap, 1 Oct – 31 Dec 2026, electricity, Direct Debit, GB average unit rate (26.32p/kWh)); export 12p/kWh (Outgoing Octopus Smart Export Guarantee tariff, 12p/kWh variable (Octopus customers with a half-hourly export meter), read 15 Oct 2026); self-use from MCS MGD 003 Issue 2.0 self-consumption tables, 2,500–2,999 kWh use, occupied half the day. Coutts' guide price for 4kWp with 10kWh battery capacity is from £9,500, inclusive of VAT at 0% (the relief runs to 31 March 2027). Full worked example: solar panel cost in Kent; schemes: solar and battery grants in Kent.

What every solar panels job includes

• MCS certified — your system qualifies for the Smart Export Guarantee
• DNO G98/G99 application and commissioning handled for you
• Scaffolding, a 6 year financial protection policy and full handover documentation as standard
• Designed and installed by our own qualified electricians