Satellite Dishes
You do not normally need permission to install a satellite dish to your home.
You may need planning permission if your house is in a conservation area, or if your house is a listed building. You need listed building consent for any dish that affects the character or appearance of a listed building.
The installation of some dishes will require planning permission because of their size.
If you live in a conservation area
A dish cannot be installed on a chimney, wall, or a roof slope which faces onto and is visible from a road.
If you live outside of a conservation area
You do not need to apply for planning permission to install an antenna on your property, as long as:
- There will be no more than two dishes on the property overall. These may be on the front or back of the building, on the roof, attached to the chimney, or in the garden
- If you are installing a single dish that is not more than 100 centimetres across*
- If you are installing two dishes, one is not more than 100 centimetres across and the other is not more than 60 centimetres across*
- The cubic capacity of each individual dish is not more than 35 litres;
- A dish fitted onto a chimney stack is not more than 60 centimetres*
- Any dish mounted on the roof only sticks out above the roof when there is a chimney-stack.
Further information
You must position a dish or antenna so that its effect on the outside appearance of the building is reduced as far as possible. You must also remove it when you no longer need it.
If your planning department thinks your antenna is in a poor position and could reasonably be moved to make it less noticeable, they may ask you to move it (at your own expense).
(*All measurements are when measured in a straight line from edge to edge.)
For further information, you can also download the DCLG booklet 
A Householder's Guide to Antennas and Satellite Dishes
Page updated: 15 Jun 2010
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