In most of England the first question about a home battery is how big. In Hendon it is usually where, and on whose wall. Close to half of Hendon ward’s households live in purpose-built flats, and close to half rent privately, so for many residents a battery is a conversation with a freeholder or landlord before it is a conversation about kilowatt-hours. This guide goes through Hendon’s housing type by type and says where a battery can realistically sit in each. For the storage side of our service, see our page on battery storage for Hendon homes.
The figures are from the 2021 Census at ward level, because London towns have no town-level Census tables. They describe Hendon ward unless another ward is named.
Hendon’s homes in three numbers
First, the flats. In Hendon ward, 44.6% of households live in purpose-built flats and another 13.3% in flats within converted houses; West Hendon is similar, at 40.8% purpose-built flats. Further north the blocks dominate: 74.5% of households in Colindale South ward and 64.9% in Colindale North live in purpose-built flats. Second, tenure: 47.2% of Hendon ward households rent privately and 42.6% own their home, against 32.7% and 52.7% across Barnet. Third, the houses: semis are 20.4% of Hendon ward households, detached houses 12.8% and terraces just 6.8%.
Semis and detached houses: the straightforward cases
The third of Hendon ward households in semis and detached houses are the ones with most choice. A battery here usually goes indoors, on a wall in a garage, utility room or similar space, near the inverter and the consumer unit so the cable runs stay short and tidy. The survey decides the exact position, taking in access, ventilation and how the existing wiring is laid out. If the house already has panels, or is getting them, the Energy Saving Trust’s advice is that fitting storage at the same time as panels costs less than a separate visit later.
These houses are also the ones that most need the rest of the energy picture looked at. Across the Hendon constituency the median semi scores 63 on its EPC and the median detached house 62, both band D, against 80 for the median flat. A battery moves electricity from one time of day to another; it does nothing for heat escaping through a loft or walls. For many Hendon houses, insulation belongs in the same conversation.
Terraces and conservation areas
At 6.8% of households, terraces are less common in Hendon ward than in most of Barnet, but they bring their own constraint: often no side access and no garage, so the battery goes inside the house, wherever the survey finds a suitable wall near the supply. That is a practical question rather than a planning one.
Planning matters more for the panels. Hendon ward holds two conservation areas in NW4. Barnet’s records list the solar class among the rights removed by the Hendon The Burroughs Article 4 direction, so panels there may need an application, and the direction itself is read before any design is fixed. Hendon Church End has no direction recorded. A battery kept indoors leaves the street view untouched either way; if your house is listed, speak to Barnet’s planning team before anything is fixed to it.
Purpose-built flats
For the 44.6% of Hendon ward households in purpose-built blocks, the roof belongs to a freeholder or management company, and so do most decisions about the building’s fabric. A battery inside your own flat is physically possible in some layouts, but it still means fixing equipment to walls and connecting it to your supply, which most leases treat as an alteration needing consent. With no panels of your own to charge it, the case rests on charging from the grid on a cheaper overnight tariff, and our guide to battery storage without solar panels explains when that adds up and when it does not. In larger blocks, a communal system is a matter for the freeholder to consider.
Converted houses
The 13.3% of Hendon ward households in converted-house flats have a shared roof and, often, a shared hallway and meter cupboard. A battery serving one flat needs a home within that flat and the agreement of whoever owns the building; panels serving one flat on a shared roof need everyone with an interest in the roof to agree who pays, who benefits and who maintains them. Where that agreement exists, the survey goes ahead like any other.
If you rent
With 47.2% of Hendon ward households renting privately, the person who would decide on a battery is often the landlord. Barnet is part of the Greater London Authority’s consortium for the Warm Homes: Local Grant, which covers privately rented as well as owner-occupied homes at EPC D to G for households that meet an income, postcode or benefits test, and which funds a battery only alongside solar panels. The group-buying route is quiet locally: Switch Together’s Barnet page says it is not active in the area at the moment.
Before the survey
Hendon’s town centre sits in UK Power Networks’ Eastern Power Networks area, but the boundary with its London Power Networks area is close by, so part of Hendon may be on the other network; UKPN’s postcode checker confirms yours, and your installer handles the notification either way. For the roof side, see our solar panels in Hendon page, and for the wider area our solar panels in North London hub. If you are weighing up size as well as position, our Finchley guide to what a battery does in December versus June uses figures that sit within a few kWh of Hendon’s. When you know who needs to agree, ask for a survey through our contact page.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, TS044 accommodation type and TS054 tenure, Hendon, West Hendon, Colindale North, Colindale South wards and Barnet borough, via Nomis; ONS, Energy efficiency of housing in England and Wales, EPC records to March 2025 (released 28 October 2025), tables 4a and 4b, Hendon constituency; planning.data.gov.uk, conservation-area and article-4-direction-area datasets, London Borough of Barnet; Energy Saving Trust, Battery storage (updated 19 August 2026); GOV.UK, Warm Homes: Local Grant successful local authorities (updated 2 July 2026) and DESNZ Warm Homes: Local Grant guidance; Switch Together, Barnet page; UK Power Networks Open Data, licence boundaries dataset.