Brent has one of the more ambitious climate targets in London, and Wembley households reasonably ask what that means for them in practice. The short answer is that the council’s own projects are mostly about its own buildings and energy advice, while help with the cost of a home battery comes through one London-wide, income-linked grant that funds a battery only alongside solar panels. This guide sets out what is live, what is closed and what to watch for, using Brent’s and the Greater London Authority’s own pages. For how we approach storage on Wembley homes, see our page on battery storage for Wembley homes.
Brent’s 2030 aim and what the council has done
In July 2019 Brent Council declared a climate and ecological emergency and committed to strive for carbon neutrality by 2030 across the whole borough, not only its own operations. The council says only 12 London councils have adopted that 2030 target, and it is now reviewing its strategy for 2026 to 2030.
Some of the work is visible close to Wembley. Brent reports winning £271,000 from Sport England’s Swimming Pool Support Fund to put solar panels on Vale Farm Sports Centre, on Watford Road in North Wembley, and on Willesden Sports Centre. It also reports supporting 1,139 households through its Brent Well and Warm energy-advice service. Neither is a grant towards a household battery, but the advice service is a sensible first call if you are unsure where your home stands.
The Warm Homes: Local Grant in Brent
Brent does not run this grant itself. Its page says the scheme is delivered by a London consortium led by the Greater London Authority, working with 30 other local authorities; GOV.UK lists the consortium with £53,470,024 of funding. The tests are the national ones plus a London savings limit: a privately owned home, owner-occupied or privately rented, at EPC D to G; household income usually £36,000 or less, or a qualifying postcode or benefit; and savings under £25,000. Solar panels are among the possible measures, and a battery is funded only alongside solar.
Brent warns that demand is high and waits are longer. The GLA adds that each borough’s queue is capped at up to 250% of its funding allocation, with later applicants placed on a waiting list, and that being in the queue does not guarantee funding.
Who in Wembley might qualify
The EPC test rules in more Wembley houses than you might expect. In the Brent West constituency, which covers Wembley, the median home scores 78 (band C), but that is carried by flats, 83.4% of which reach band C. Only 18.1% of semi-detached houses and 39.9% of terraces do. For a semi, then, the EPC test is often met; income and savings decide the rest.
The houses are concentrated in Wembley Central and Wembley Hill. On our sum of the two wards’ Census 2021 counts, 28.1% of their 9,562 households live in semis, 14.8% in terraces and 6.7% in detached houses, and 39.3% own their home. Wembley Park is the opposite case: 98.2% of its households live in purpose-built flats and 61.9% rent privately, so any application there would come from a landlord, who may need to pay for part of the work.
Fees and doorstep offers
The GLA has warned that people have approached Londoners asking for fees of £300 to £1,500, promising a successful Warm Homes application or a solar installation. It says neither it nor its delivery partner will ever ask residents to pay to confirm eligibility or to pay for installing the measures. Apply through the official route, and treat any Wembley doorstep offer that ties a grant to an upfront fee with suspicion.
Group buying: not open in Brent
Switch Together, the group-buying scheme formerly called Solar Together, says on its Brent page that it is not open in the area at the moment and invites residents to register interest. If a round does open, use it as one quote and compare it with an independent one on exactly the same specification.
Paying without a grant
For most Wembley owners, a battery will be paid for without a grant. Residential battery installations carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027 and 5% from 1 April 2027, and our guide to VAT on solar panels and batteries explains what that covers. The Energy Saving Trust puts a 5 kWh battery system at around £4,600 and says a typical home system might be 10 kWh. If you have no roof of your own, our guide to battery storage without solar panels explains when a battery on its own adds up; note that the Warm Homes grant will not fund that route.
Planning can shape the system before any of this. In the Barn Hill and Wembley High Street conservation areas, Article 4 directions in force since 18 December 2021 keep permitted-development rights for solar only on rear roof slopes, so an array there may be smaller, and the battery should be sized to what that array can actually fill.
Wembley town centre sits in UK Power Networks’ Eastern Power Networks area, but the boundary with SSEN’s Southern Electric Power Distribution area is close, near Sudbury and Alperton, so some addresses may be on that network; the operators’ postcode checkers confirm yours. For panels, see our solar panels in Wembley page, and for the wider area our solar panels in North London hub. To talk through a survey, use our contact page.
Sources: London Borough of Brent, Our response to the climate emergency, Climate emergency strategy review and Warm Homes: Local Grant pages; London Borough of Brent, Vale Farm Sports Centre address page; GOV.UK, Warm Homes: Local Grant successful local authorities (updated 2 July 2026); Greater London Authority, Warm Homes: Local Grant and important notice for applicants; DESNZ, Warm Homes: Local Grant guidance (updated 2 July 2026); Switch Together, Brent page; ONS, Median energy efficiency score and EPC band C or above, records to financial year ending 2025 (Brent West); ONS Census 2021, TS044 and TS054, Wembley Central, Wembley Hill and Wembley Park wards, via Nomis; London Borough of Brent, Barn Hill and Wembley High Street Article 4 directions; HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6; Energy Saving Trust, Battery storage (updated 19 August 2026); UK Power Networks licence boundaries and NESO GIS boundaries for GB DNO licence areas.