Where does the charger actually go? On a detached house with a double drive, nobody asks. In Tooting, where 54.2% of households in the Tooting Bec, Tooting Broadway and Furzedown wards live in a flat and 33.7% in a terraced house, the position of a charger is often the whole question: which wall, which supply, whose permission. This guide goes through the choices in the order a survey makes them. For the wider picture, including grants and the supply, see our page on EV charger installation in Tooting.
DVLA records 6,646 privately kept plug-in vehicles across Wandsworth at the end of June 2026, up from 5,772 a year earlier. Most of them in SW17 will be parked on the street, and that is where the position question starts.
Start from where the car stops
The charger goes where the cable can reach the car without crossing anything it should not. In Tooting that gives three cases.
On the street, outside a terrace. In February 2026 Wandsworth Council announced that residents could request EV cable channels in front of their homes: the council owns and maintains a channel in the pavement, and the resident installs and maintains a dedicated chargepoint at home. The charger then goes on the front of the house, close to where the channel meets the wall. The council’s electric vehicles page, last updated on 15 June 2026, still says a cable across the pavement is not permitted under the Highways Act 1980, so confirm with the council that channel applications are open for your street before choosing a position.
On a drive or forecourt. The few semis (9.8% of households across the three wards) and detached houses (2.3%) with off-street parking are the simple case: a side or front wall next to the space.
In a shared car park or rear court. This is the case to plan for in a purpose-built block, home to 31.1% of households across the Tooting wards. The charger goes at the allocated bay, usually on a post, and the cable route back to your flat decides the job.
Wall or post
A wall-mounted charger is the default where the parking space is next to the house. A post, also called a pedestal, is for a space that is not: a bay at the back of a block, or a forecourt where the house wall is too far from where the car sits. A post needs a buried or contained cable run from the house to its base, which adds groundwork, and in a Tooting block that groundwork is on land the freeholder owns.
Tethered or socketed
The EnSmart SmartBee-M we fit is published in both forms, with a Type 2 connection and an IP65 weatherproof rating. Tethered means the cable is permanently attached: park, unhook, plug in. Socketed means you bring your own cable, which is tidier on a wall and suits a household that may change cars. On a Totterdown Fields or Heaver Estate frontage that faces the street, a socketed unit leaves nothing hanging on the front of the house between charges, which some owners prefer. Our home EV charger installation page sets out the full specification.
The cable run from your consumer unit
Every home charger needs a dedicated circuit from the consumer unit, and in Tooting the consumer unit is not always near the car. Flats in converted or shared houses hold 20.4% of households across the three wards, rising to 27.8% in Tooting Broadway. In a converted house the charger must be wired to your own flat’s consumer unit, on your own supply and meter, so that the charging is billed to you. If that unit is on the first floor or in a shared hallway, the cable has to come down an outside wall or through common parts, and the freeholder has to agree, plus your landlord if you rent; 38.3% of households across the wards rent privately.
Totterdown Fields adds its own twist. The estate’s ‘fourth class’ cottages were built as a separate ground-floor and first-floor flat under one roof, so the front wall may be shared between two owners, and the other owner’s agreement matters for anything fixed to it.
The supply comes with the run. Tooting’s town centre sits in UK Power Networks’ London Power Networks area. A 7 kW charger draws 32 A continuously, household main fuses are commonly 60 A, 80 A or 100 A, and in a converted house the survey first confirms which supply the charger will run from before checking its fuse.
Tooting’s conservation areas: checks with the council
Three of Tooting’s conservation areas are most likely to come up: Totterdown Fields, the first of the London County Council’s cottage estates, designated on 19 September 1978; the Heaver Estate, designated the same day and later extended; and Mellison Road, designated in 1989, whose character comes from knapped flint on the houses and boundary walls. We make no planning call on any of them. What we can tell you is what the council’s own documents cover.
- Heaver Estate. Wandsworth’s 1996 Article 4 directions remove permitted development for alterations to a roof slope fronting a highway, front-facing alterations, front porches, hard surfaces, front boundaries and painting.
- Totterdown Fields. The direction’s schedule lists alterations to the roof, front hard surfaces, and front gates, fences and walls.
- Mellison Road. Its flint boundary walls are part of what the area protects, so fixing a post or bracket to one is a question to ask.
If your house is in any of them, ask Wandsworth’s planning team before fixing a charger to a street-facing wall, and plan a side or rear position where the parking allows. The same applies to a listed building anywhere in SW17.
Paying for it
Wandsworth’s cable channel announcement describes a £1,000 Department for Transport-funded grant per cable, cutting the channel installation fee from £1,250 to £250; that covers the channel, not the charger. The government’s grants cover renters and flat owners with private off-street or allocated parking (75% up to £500 per socket) and on-street households using an approved cross-pavement solution (up to £500), subject to the council’s rules. Our guide to who qualifies for the EV chargepoint grant sets out each route; claims must be made through an OZEV-authorised installer, so tell us your situation at the quote stage. A home charger carries 20% VAT.
If you own the roof as well as the parking, our page on battery storage in Tooting covers converted flats and storage alongside a charger. Send us photos of the frontage and the consumer unit through our contact page, or call 0204 547 1892.
Sources: Wandsworth Council news, ‘New grants to make electric vehicle charging more affordable’, 18 February 2026, and Wandsworth Council, Electric vehicles, last updated 15 June 2026, both read 19 October 2026; ONS Census 2021, TS044 Accommodation type and TS054 Tenure, 2022 wards E05014023, E05014024 and E05014013, via the Nomis API; DfT and DVLA, VEH0142 licensed plug-in vehicles by keepership and local authority, Wandsworth, 2026 Q2 and 2025 Q2 (published 23 September 2026); Wandsworth Council, Totterdown Fields Conservation Area Appraisal and Article 4 Direction schedules; Wandsworth Council, Heaver Estate Conservation Area Appraisal and 1996 Article 4 Directions; Wandsworth Council, Mellison Road Conservation Area Appraisal; UK Power Networks Open Data Portal, licence boundaries (December 2024); GOV.UK, Changes to electric vehicle chargepoint grant schemes from 1 April 2026 (updated 7 July 2026); HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6; EnSmart SmartBee-M published specification.