On 17 July 2019, Wandsworth councillors voted unanimously to declare a climate emergency, at a meeting where a petition signed by 10,000 people was also presented. Seven years on, the question for a Tooting household is more practical: does any of that translate into help paying for a home battery? The honest answer is “sometimes, for some households”, and this guide sets out which schemes are live, which are paused and which do not exist. Our page on battery storage in Tooting covers the grid and housing side.
One thing first. There is no general government grant for household batteries or solar in England. Anyone offering a Tooting household a battery paid for by “the government” with no income test should be asked which scheme, in writing.
What Wandsworth has committed to
The council now aims to be carbon neutral by 2030 and for Wandsworth to be a net zero borough by 2043. It says domestic buildings produce 42% of the borough’s emissions and transport 21%, which is why homes feature so heavily in its plans. Its own building work includes Fircroft Primary School on Fircroft Road in Tooting, where it lists an air source heat pump, new lighting controls and a replacement roof with added insulation, costing £436,254 and funded by the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
Those are Wandsworth’s own projects, not offers to residents. For households, the council’s role is mainly as a channel for national money, and the main channel is one grant.
The Warm Homes: Local Grant, and where a battery fits
Wandsworth’s retrofit grants page describes the Warm Homes: Local Grant as providing energy performance upgrades and low-carbon heating, including insulation, solar panels and air source heat pumps, and the council says it applies for such funding on residents’ behalf. Nationally, the grant is for homes in England that are privately owned, by the occupier or a landlord, with an EPC of D, E, F or G. Household income must usually be £36,000 a year or less, or the home must be in an eligible low-income postcode, or the household must receive certain benefits.
For a battery the key line is this: the grant funds batteries only alongside solar PV. A Tooting household cannot use it for a battery on its own, so for the 33.7% of local households in terraced houses the question is whether the roof suits panels as well. And a council arranges a survey only if it has funding available, usually making contact within 10 working days of an application, so eligibility is not the same as an offer.
Who in Tooting is likely to qualify
Two local figures set the scale. The Local Intelligence Hub shows 55.5% of households in the Tooting constituency with an EPC of D or worse, against 54.1% nationally, so on that measure more than half of local homes would meet the EPC condition. But tenure narrows it: across the Tooting Bec, Tooting Broadway and Furzedown wards, 43.8% of households own their home and 38.3% rent privately, while 16.6% rent from a council or other social landlord, and social homes are outside a scheme for privately owned property.
So the likely candidates are owner-occupiers on lower incomes in D-to-G homes, and private tenants whose landlord is willing to apply. The constituency’s estimated fuel-poverty rate is 16.6%, against 17.9% nationally, and the income test is the one most households will need to check first.
Group buying: Solar Together, now Switch Together
Wandsworth has supported group buying before. Its 2021/22 progress report says direct letters and a targeted social media campaign increased the number of residents signed up to the Solar Together offer. The scheme now trades as Switch Together, and when we checked on 17 September 2026 its Wandsworth page read that it was not active in the area yet and invited residents to leave their details. Leaving your details does not stop you getting an independent quote now. If a round opens, compare it with any quote on identical specification: battery capacity, inverter, panel count and warranty terms.
Loans and VAT
For a Tooting owner-occupier outside the grant’s income test, the loan is the other national route. The Warm Homes Loan Scheme rules, dated September 2026, set loan caps of £15,000 for an electrical storage battery and £15,000 for solar PV, with government paying lenders a grant of up to 20% of the loan to bring the interest rate down. The rules describe an initial consumer launch phase from September 2026; we have not verified which lenders take part, so ask any lender directly. It is a lower-interest loan, not a zero-interest one.
The one help every Tooting household gets is the VAT relief. Under HMRC’s VAT Notice 708/6, residential installations of batteries and solar panels are zero-rated until 31 March 2027, whether the battery comes with panels or on its own, and the rate is 5% from 1 April 2027. Our post on VAT on solar panels and batteries has the detail.
What to do first in SW17
Start with your EPC: if your home is rated D or worse and your household income is around £36,000 or less, ask Wandsworth Council about the Warm Homes: Local Grant before paying for anything, and remember the battery would come with panels, not alone. If you are on the Totterdown Fields or Heaver Estate streets, the council’s retrofit guidance also says homes in a conservation area may need planning permission first, and its duty planner answers questions free at planning@wandsworth.gov.uk. Otherwise, a survey and a quote will tell you whether a battery pays in your home; our guide to solar panel payback time shows how to read the numbers. The roof side is on our page on solar panels in Tooting, and the neighbouring boroughs are on our south-west London solar panels hub.
Sources: Wandsworth Council, minutes of Council 17 July 2019; Decarbonising buildings across the borough; Retrofit grants and funding; Retrofit planning and regulation; Wandsworth Key Issues 2021/22 (all read 17 September 2026); Switch Together, Wandsworth solar panels page (read 17 September 2026); GOV.UK, Apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant and DESNZ guidance (updated 2 July 2026); DESNZ, Warm Homes Loan Scheme scheme rules (September 2026); HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6; mySociety Local Intelligence Hub, Tooting constituency (DLUHC EPC data via Friends of the Earth; End Fuel Poverty Coalition); ONS Census 2021, TS054 Tenure for wards E05014023, E05014024 and E05014013 (Nomis, read 17 September 2026).