Air conditioning in Hackney

Does Hackney Council allow air conditioning on homes?

It discourages it. The draft of Hackney's guidance on residential extensions and alterations, published in September 2025, said that air conditioning units for homes are typically not acceptable and pointed residents to its retrofit guidance instead; it asked for any air source heat pump to go on a façade that is not prominent, away from main street frontages and heritage façades. The extensions guidance was adopted in December 2025 and took effect in January 2026; we have read the draft wording and quote it as such, so check the adopted text before relying on it. The retrofit draft puts passive measures first, so that active cooling such as air conditioning is reduced or avoided. Hackney's Local Plan, adopted on 22 July 2020, asks new development to have regard to the cooling hierarchy, and the London Plan does the same for major developments across London, describing more air conditioning as not desirable because of the energy it uses.

Guidance like this decides planning applications. Where a unit ticks every box for permitted development, no application is required, but in Hackney many homes are flats in mixed buildings or sit in conservation areas, so an application is often needed, and that is where the guidance applies. We tell you which case you are in before you spend anything. Sources: Hackney Council, draft guidance; adoption of the guidance; draft retrofit guidance; Hackney Council, Local Plan; Local Plan policy LP54; London Plan; Planning Portal.

Why is a Hackney job usually a flat?

Because that is how most of Hackney lives. At the 2021 Census about 60% of households were in purpose-built flats and almost another fifth in converted houses and other converted buildings, about 79% in all, or 81% counting flats above shops and offices, with only 1.4% in detached houses. Private renting rose from 29.0% to 32.2% between 2011 and 2021, while social renting fell from 43.7% to 40.5%. A block that contains nothing but flats is allowed a single outdoor unit between all of them under permitted development, and a building with a shop in it gets none, so the freeholder and often a planning application decide what happens. Where nothing can go outside, a unit with no outdoor box may be the practical answer. Sources: Area Insights, Hackney; ONS; Planning Portal; LEASE.

How many conservation areas does Hackney have?

Thirty-five. The first were designated in 1969: Clapton Square, Clapton Common, Clapton Pond and Clissold Park. On Clapton Square, Nos 21 to 24 are an early 19th-century terrace of three storeys with attics and basements, listed at Grade II since 4 February 1975, and in Homerton, Sutton House, built in 1535, is Grade II* and described as the oldest home in Hackney. In a conservation area the street-facing walls and roofs are not available for an outdoor unit, and any listed building needs consent before work starts. Sources: Hackney Council; Historic England, Clapton Square; Wikipedia; Planning Portal; the 1990 Act, section 7.

Which licences do Hackney landlords need?

New ones since 1 May 2026. A selective licensing scheme now covers 17 wards, among them Hackney Central, Hackney Downs, Homerton, Hackney Wick, London Fields, Victoria, Clissold and Dalston, and runs to 30 April 2031. Hackney also requires an additional licence for a home shared by three or four people from two or more households. A tenant still needs the landlord's written consent before we fit anything, and the electrical sign-off for the job is worth filing with the licence papers. The same questions across Redbridge are covered on our air conditioning in Ilford page. Sources: The Gazette; Hackney Council.

Services we offer in Hackney

All ten services below are available in Hackney. Each card opens a page on what the work involves.

What happens after you get in touch?

1. A short call about the building

   Phone 020 8176 6154 or send the form. We ask what kind of property it is, which rooms you want cooler or warmer, and whether you own the wall the pipes would pass through, so the visit covers what matters.

2. A visit, measurements and a written quote

   At the property we size the room, find a spot for the outdoor unit, work out the sound level at the closest neighbouring window and check that the fuse board can take a new circuit. The quote follows on paper, with the electrical work and any access equipment on separate lines.

3. Agreement before anything is ordered

   If a freeholder, landlord, managing agent or the council must approve the work, nothing is bought until they do. We supply the plan and noise figure they normally want to see.

4. Fitting day and handover

   We fix both units, run the pipes, drain and cable, pressure-test the pipework and pull a vacuum on it before any refrigerant goes in, then check the system in cooling and in heating. We go through the controls with you and leave the paperwork. A yearly service keeps it efficient.