Commercial rooftop solar for shopping centres in Leicestershire

A county guide for owners and managers of shopping centres and retail parks: planning, grid, tax and council notes. On a Leicestershire retail scheme the landlord decision comes first and the technical one second.

Commercial rooftop solar suits a Leicestershire shopping centre or retail park when the landlord pays for a large common-area load that runs through trading hours. Roof PV on a non-domestic building in England is permitted development under Class J of Part 14 up to 50 kW, with the council's prior approval needed above that, and the grid connection runs through National Grid Electricity Distribution.

The Leicestershire retail estate

Retail in the county comes in three shapes, and each needs a different solar plan. Fosse Park sits in Enderby parish in Blaby district, on the southern edge of Leicester, and opened in 1989 as an out-of-town scheme, so the roof and the car park both need assessing. Highcross, in the city centre, opened in 1991 as The Shires and was extended and renamed in 2008: a covered scheme where the common-area load is the case. In Loughborough, The Rushes was built on the former bus station site, a town-centre scheme with its own roof access and tenant questions.

That mix is why the array is sized from the landlord's common-area demand and not from a roof plan. Start with at least twelve months of half-hourly meter data on the common-area supplies, then test the roof and the car park against it. The Leicester city page covers the city core, and the cost guide explains what moves the price of a retail scheme.

Planning, grid and tax in England

Leicestershire is in England, so rooftop PV on a mall, shop or retail park falls under Class J of Part 14 of Schedule 2 to the GPDO 2015, not the householder Class A. Microgeneration up to 50 kW on a building is permitted development. Above 50 kW the council's prior approval is needed first, and listed buildings and conservation areas carry extra conditions, so check the point with the district council before design work starts.

The county sits in the National Grid Electricity Distribution East Midlands licence area. Up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW single-phase, about 11 kW three-phase) is connect-and-notify under G98. Anything larger needs a G99 application and DNO approval before connection, and the DNO sets the programme, so submit it early, alongside the structural survey.

For tax, the £1m Annual Investment Allowance usually lets a company under the limit write off the whole cost of the array in year one, at its own corporation tax rate. Above that limit the 50% first-year allowance applies, because full expensing does not cover solar. In England, on-site solar and battery plant is left out of business-rates valuation from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2035. The grants and tax relief guide sets out the rest of the funding picture.

Seven districts and a city: who decides

Leicestershire has seven district councils: Blaby, Charnwood, Harborough, Hinckley and Bosworth, Melton, North West Leicestershire, and Oadby and Wigston. Leicester City Council is a separate unitary authority. The district council is normally the planning authority for a roof array. Local government reorganisation has been proposed in the county but is not settled, so confirm which council covers a site before planning around it.

Leicestershire County Council has moved its net zero dates since 2019. Read its current plan, not an older page, and treat any council target as context for a business case rather than a requirement on a private landlord.

Yield and the checks to run

PVGIS puts a south-facing array at 35 degrees in Leicester at about 981 kWh per kWp a year, and around 950 to 1,000 kWh per kWp is a fair working range for the East Midlands. Use that as a check on any installer forecast, alongside the share of generation used on site and the import tariff the forecast assumes.

Privately let non-domestic property in England and Wales must be EPC E or above now, and the government has proposed EPC B from 2031 for let buildings over 1,000 m2 where cost effective, subject to secondary legislation. Solar can improve the EPC of the units it serves, which matters most on a multi-let scheme.

What to do next

Pull twelve months of half-hourly data for the common-area supplies, ask the district council whether prior approval applies, and ask the DNO for the connection route before any design is priced. For the wider view of the topic see solar panels for shopping centres. When you are ready, send an enquiry for your Leicestershire scheme. We reply by email.