What makes a back-to-back different
Back-to-backs were built in long rows with a spine wall down the middle: one house faces one street, the house behind it faces the next street or yard, and there is no back door or back garden. Most were cleared in the twentieth century, but Leeds kept far more than anywhere else; research at the University of York describes them as the largest surviving group of the type in the UK (Harrison, 2019), and council housing evidence estimates about 19,500 still in use (Leeds City Council).
They sit within the city's terraced housing, which the Census does not split by type. Terraces are most common in Headingley & Hyde Park (42.3% of households), Gipton & Harehills (41.6%), Burmantofts & Richmond Hill (37.4%), Armley (36.9%) and Beeston & Holbeck (36%) (ONS), which take in many of the back-to-back streets. Most of the type predate 1919, and 17% of all Leeds properties do (VOA 2026).
For solar the spine wall is what matters. The roof ridge runs along it, so each house owns the single slope on its own side. A through-terrace owner who dislikes the front slope can turn to the back; a back-to-back owner cannot.
Your street decides your slope
Because the owned slope faces the same way as the front door, the direction of the street fixes it for every house in the row. The table pairs each street direction with the two sides of the same row, using PVGIS figures for Harehills (PVGIS 5.3):
| Street runs | One side faces | kWh | Other side faces | kWh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East–west | south | 947 | north | 505 |
| North–south | east | 751 | west | 738 |
| North-east to south-west | south east | 894 | north west | 576 |
| North-west to south-east | south west | 884 | north east | 584 |
So on the same row, one house can have one of the best roofs in the city and its partner one of the worst. Streets laid out north to south are the even-handed case: both sides get east or west, each about four-fifths of a south slope, and an east slope's morning output or a west slope's evening output can suit a household out at work. Check your own street with the roof picker.
Small roofs and the price per kW
A back-to-back slope is short and narrow, and it is rarely clear. Chimney stacks often sit on the party walls at both ends, some houses have a dormer or roof light from an attic conversion, and whatever is left between them limits how many panels fit. Expect a small system, and ask for a layout drawing that shows each panel against the stacks and any dormer.
Small systems cost more per kW, because scaffold, the inverter, the electrical work and the certification cost much the same whatever the size. Across Yorkshire and the Humber, systems up to 4 kW averaged £1,972 per kW in 2025/26 and systems of 4 to 10 kW £1,745 (DESNZ). A 2 kW array at the smaller-system average would come to about £3,950 by our arithmetic, and would make about 1,894 kWh a year on a south slope in Harehills. The costs page sets out the full range.
Where stacks shade part of the array through the day, panel optimisers or microinverters keep a shaded panel from pulling down the rest. Ask whether the quote includes them and why.
The terrace across the street
A house with a south-facing slope looks across its street at the next terrace, whose roof stands to its south. In summer that hardly matters, as the sun is high. In midwinter the noon sun at Leeds's latitude is only about 13° above the horizon (our arithmetic), so a terrace of the same height across a narrow street can shade the lower part of your slope for several weeks either side of the shortest day. Those weeks produce little in any case, which is why winter shade costs less over a year than it appears from the street.
Shade from a taller building, a mature tree or a raised road to the south is different, because it can bite in spring and autumn too. A good survey looks at what stands to the south, east and west of the roof and estimates the loss in kWh, not just "some shading".
Scaffold in a narrow street
Fitting panels needs scaffold on the street side, because there is no back. On a narrow terraced street the scaffold stands on the pavement, which needs a licence from Leeds City Council as highway authority, and the council's form restricts when scaffold can be put up or taken down in busy pedestrian areas (Leeds City Council). The scaffolder usually applies. Parked cars, a bin collection day and the neighbours' front doors all have to be planned around.
Ask each installer whether scaffold and the licence are in the price, and how long the scaffold will stand. On a row where several neighbours are interested, one scaffold run for several houses can be cheaper for each; it needs every owner's agreement and separate contracts.
If your slope faces north
A north slope at 35° makes about 505 kWh a year per kW in Harehills, roughly half of a south slope (PVGIS 5.3). With small-system prices that is a hard case to make, and an honest installer will say so. North-east and north-west slopes, at 584 and 576, are a little better.
Some owners in this position look at a small plug-in panel on a sunnier wall or window, which became legal in 2026 within limits; see plug-in solar in Leeds. If you rent, which 21.8% of Leeds households do from a private landlord, the roof is your landlord's decision: see renting and solar.