Solar panels in Broughton Astley, one of the least restricted villages for it
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Broughton Astley is unusually unrestricted for solar
Two things make a house easy or awkward for solar: the roof, and whether planning gets in the way. On most of this village, both come down in your favour.
Broughton Astley grew quickly, so most of what you see is modern estate housing from the last few decades. That kind of roof is the easy kind for solar: a simple pitch, sound tile, and enough clear slope for a full run of panels. There's little of the cut-up, awkward roofline you find in an older village centre.
The bigger point is planning. Because the estates and most of the wider village sit outside any conservation area, the question that slows panels down elsewhere, whether you can put them on a front-facing roof, mostly falls away here. For the detail on when solar is permitted development and when it needs an application, see whether you need planning permission. For most homes in Broughton Astley, the answer is that you can go ahead.
What we won't do is talk you into the biggest system that fits. The right size comes down to your roof and how much power you actually use. What size system you need explains how we work that out, and it's the same honest approach across all our solar work in Leicester.
The estates, the bulk of the village
Recent estate housing makes up most of Broughton Astley. Simple pitched roofs, sound tile, plenty of clear slope, and no conservation area over them. For solar this is the easy end of the scale.
The old core, the one exception
Around St Mary's, and the original centres of the villages Broughton Astley grew from, sit the older brick homes and the listed church. These want a more careful design, and the listed church is the clearest exception to the go-ahead.
Around St Mary's, where the care goes in
Broughton Astley grew out of three villages, and their original centres, around St Mary's Church especially, are the one part of the village where solar takes real thought.
Around the church you find the older brick homes and cottages. St Mary's itself is Grade II* listed, which is why the old core stands apart from the easy run of estate roofs on the rest of the village.
Two things make a period home a more careful job than a new estate house. First, planning: if a home is listed or sits right by the church, it's the exception to the go-ahead most of the village enjoys, and whether you need planning permission sets out what that involves. Second, the roof itself: an older roof can be steeper or more broken up than a new estate roof, and solar on a north-facing or awkward roof covers how we handle pitch, hips and shade. Neither rules solar out; the design just has to suit the roof.
Because so much of this is about the roof in front of us, we come and look in person rather than judge it off a satellite photo. What happens at a solar assessment walks through the visit, and there's no charge for it.
Solar is usually the first step. If you use most of your power in the evening, a battery changes the maths: whether you need a battery explains when it's worth it, and our battery storage page goes into the detail. Charging a car too? An EV charger in Broughton Astley is best sized alongside the panels. You can see every area we work in on our areas we cover page.
Common questions
- Do I need planning permission for solar in Broughton Astley?
- For the great majority of homes, no. Most of Broughton Astley sits outside any conservation area, so the restriction that can catch a front-facing roof in an older village doesn't apply here. The main exceptions are the listed buildings, like St Mary's Church, and a few of the oldest homes in the original core. If yours is one of those, we flag it early.
- Why is Broughton Astley an easy village for solar?
- It grew fast, so most of the housing is modern estate stock from the last few decades. That kind of roof is the straightforward kind: a simple pitch, sound tile, and room for a full run of panels. There's very little of the awkward period roofline you get in an older village centre, and no conservation area over the estates to work around.
- We're in an older home near St Mary's. Does solar still work?
- Usually, yes. A period home in the old core is a more careful job than a new estate house, but that's normal work for us. The things to sort are whether the building is listed, and how the older roof is shaped and shaded. Neither rules solar out; it just means we design around the roof you actually have.
More questions? See our common questions.