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Solar Panel Grants North London: What You Can Actually Get
What exists across seven North London boroughs, who each route is for, how each council handles the grant, and the VAT saving every home installation gets.
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Solar panel grants in North London exist, but they are narrower than the word “grant” suggests. There is no general grant for solar on a home in Barnet, Harrow, Brent, Haringey, Enfield, Waltham Forest or Havering, and nobody can honestly promise a fully funded system without asking about your income, your savings, your home’s EPC rating and who owns it. What does exist is real: an income-linked grant shared across London with a queue in each borough, a Haringey cashback fund, an energy company scheme that ends on 31 December 2026, a lower-interest loan, a group-buy with no round open, and a 0% VAT rate on every residential installation.
We are an installer, not a grant body. Home Comfort Enterprises (HCE) does not deliver any of these schemes: a grant decision belongs to the Greater London Authority’s consortium, the council or the scheme itself. Each route below is set out as its own source described it, most of them read on 19 October 2026, alongside our main solar panels North London page.
Quick answer
Solar panel grants in North London, in short:
- No general grant pays for solar on an ordinary North London home; the funded routes are income-linked, and the Warm Homes: Local Grant has a queue in each borough
- All seven boroughs reach the Warm Homes: Local Grant through the GLA-led London consortium (£53,470,024 on the GOV.UK list); under the GLA’s rules savings must be under £25,000
- Switch Together (formerly Solar Together) was not active in any of the seven boroughs on 19 October 2026; no round dates are published
- Haringey’s Power Boost Fund pays private homeowners 15% or 25% cashback, up to £5,000, but solar and a battery count as one measure type, so a second type is needed
- ECO4 is income-linked and runs until 31 December 2026; the Warm Homes Loan Scheme is lower-interest borrowing, not a grant, and Waltham Forest’s 0% loan is closed
- 0% VAT applies to every residential solar panel and battery installation until 31 March 2027, then 5% from 1 April 2027
Sources: Switch Together, GOV.UK, the GLA, Brent, Enfield, Haringey and Havering councils, Ofgem and HMRC, read 19 October 2026.
Who North London’s funded routes are written for
For the Warm Homes: Local Grant, GOV.UK sets the national gate: a home in England, privately owned by you or your landlord, with an EPC of D, E, F or G, and household income usually £36,000 a year or less, unless you live in a qualifying postcode or someone in the household gets certain benefits. The GLA, which runs the scheme for the seven boroughs, adds a £25,000 savings limit across all its routes, with pension savings not counted. If you rent, your landlord may need to pay for some of the improvements.
Ownership is part of the test, not just income. At the 2021 Census, 13.5% of Barnet households, 10.4% in Harrow, 17.0% in Enfield and 13.6% in Havering rented from a social landlord, and across Tottenham’s eight wards the figure is 34.0% (our sum). Haringey Council says Londoners renting from a housing association or the council are not currently supported by the grant. A privately rented home can qualify, which matters in Brent, where 36.0% of households rent privately; at the other end, 69.5% of Havering households own their home, against 45.2% across London.
Solar Together in North London: a group-buy, not a grant
Solar Together London was the city’s group-buy for panels and batteries, backed by the GLA and the boroughs: the household still paid, at a pooled price. Harrow used it more than anywhere else in London. Its climate strategy records that in the 2021 and 2022 rounds 285 Harrow residents committed to panels and 139 of them also chose battery storage, more participants than any other borough. The GLA says the scheme is now completing its fifth phase, with over 3,000 London homes fitted to date, and that following the failure of one installation company some customers need help to secure a refund or have their installation completed.
The scheme now trades as Switch Together, and on 19 October 2026 its pages for Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Havering and Waltham Forest all said it was not active in the area, inviting residents to register to be told when the next scheme launches. If a North London round reopens, compare its offer line by line against a survey quote for the same roof, as our guide to what is in a solar quote, line by line sets out.
The Warm Homes: Local Grant in North London, borough by borough
None of the seven boroughs runs this grant alone. GOV.UK lists all of them as members of the consortium led by the Greater London Authority, with funding of £53,470,024, and the GLA delivers it for 31 local authorities. In the scheme’s second and third years applications are handled first come, first served within each borough, each borough’s queue is capped at up to 250% of its allocation, and being in the queue does not guarantee funding. The GLA also says demand is high and waits between application and next steps will be longer. Solar panels are among the improvements it can pay for.
Brent and Havering. Both councils say they are part of the GLA-led consortium, that the scheme is not delivered by the council directly, and that wait times will be longer because of the volume of applications. Havering also repeats the GLA’s warning about people charging residents to “secure” an application, and points residents to the Energy Doctors, an home energy-advice service run by Age UK that is open to all Havering residents at no cost.
Enfield. The council says it has received over 400 expressions of interest from residents and that, because of high demand, not all eligible properties will receive upgrades.
Haringey. The council sends residents to the Mayor of London’s site to check eligibility and apply, and says Londoners renting from a housing association or local council are not currently supported by the grant.
Waltham Forest. The grant does reach roofs here. In March 2026 the council reported that a Chingford resident had solar panels and a battery fitted through it, one of more than 140 local households to receive energy-saving technology under the scheme so far.
Barnet and Harrow. Both are on GOV.UK’s list of consortium members, so the starting point is the GOV.UK Warm Homes: Local Grant checker or the GLA’s grant page, not an installer.
ECO4, loans and borough funds for North London homes
ECO4, the energy company scheme, is income-linked and runs until 31 December 2026, following a nine-month extension, according to Ofgem; it is not a general offer, and Haringey lists it beside the Warm Homes: Local Grant on its own assistance page. The government’s other route is borrowing, through the Warm Homes Loan Scheme: its rules cap loans at £15,000 for solar PV and £15,000 for a battery, with the government paying lenders up to 20% of the loan to lower the interest rate. That makes it a lower-interest loan that is repaid, not a grant; we have not verified a participating lender, so check GOV.UK.
Two boroughs have had their own money for this. In Haringey, the Power Boost Haringey Fund, paid for from planning carbon-offset contributions, gives private homeowners 15% cashback for two types of measure or 25% for three, up to £5,000, through the Power Up Homes group buy run by RetrofitWorks. Solar PV and battery storage count as one type, so panels on their own do not qualify; adding a second type, such as insulation, can. In Waltham Forest, the council’s 0% interest Energy Upgrade Loan, which covered solar PV on homes rated EPC D or lower, is closed to applications.
Want a North London quote to hold against any offer?
Grant or no grant, a no-obligation survey gives you an itemised written quote for your roof in Barnet, Harrow, Brent, Haringey, Enfield, Waltham Forest or Havering.
0% VAT and export payments on North London installations
One saving needs no application, no income test and no queue. HMRC VAT Notice 708/6 puts residential installations of solar panels and batteries at 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, then 5% from 1 April 2027. It applies equally to a Switch Together offer, if a North London round reopens, to a Power Boost Haringey job and to an independent quote. Our guide to VAT on solar panels and batteries covers the edge cases.
Export payments are not a grant either. Smart Export Guarantee rates are set by each supplier and must be above zero — they change on short notice, which is why we never print one. How much a North London roof exports depends on what it makes and what you use at home: PVGIS puts an unshaded, due-south 4 kWp roof in Enfield at about 3,955 kWh a year. Export payments need an MCS-certified installation; HCE is MCS-certified for solar PV and battery storage, with certification held via NAPIT (member 73495).
Grant offers in North London: what to check first
If a caller, leaflet or advert offers “free solar panels” to a North London home, read it as “no upfront cost for eligible households, with criteria”. The funded routes here are income-linked: the Warm Homes: Local Grant, through the GLA-led consortium, and ECO4 until 31 December 2026. The GLA warns that people have approached Londoners asking for fees of £300 to £1,500 to secure an application or arrange solar panels, and says neither it nor its delivery partner will ever ask residents to pay to confirm eligibility or for installation.
- Ask which scheme is paying, by name. “A government scheme” or “the council” is not an answer; the Warm Homes: Local Grant in London is run by the GLA’s consortium.
- The grant queue is not an installer’s. Each borough’s queue is first come, first served and capped; an installer cannot sell you a place in it.
- Check the installer’s registers. We are NAPIT member 73495 and HIES Consumer Code member HCE/A/1392.
What a North London roof earns without a grant
Without a grant, the sums start with light. For an unshaded roof at 4 kWp, 35° tilt, due south, 14% system losses, building-mounted, PVGIS 5.3 (European Commission Joint Research Centre) gives about 3,938 kWh a year in Edgware and about 4,055 in Romford, the two ends of our 14 North London town pages. By our arithmetic that spread of about 117 kWh is smaller than the year-to-year variation PVGIS gives at any one town (±150 to ±166 kWh), so roof direction and shade matter far more than which borough you live in.
On cost, the national anchor is the Energy Saving Trust’s: a typical 4.5 kWp system of around 12 panels costs around £7,600 installed. That is a UK figure, not our price, which comes from a survey; what moves it locally is on solar panel cost in North London, and the national breakdown is on solar panel installation cost. With Article 4 directions on the street elevations of three Haringey estates and two Brent conservation areas, our guide to planning permission for solar panels in North London is worth reading before a survey. Town pages: Harrow, Tottenham, Enfield, Chingford and Romford. The battery systems in our own job photos are EnSmart, and our battery storage page explains how one is sized.
Sources: Switch Together, borough pages, read 19 October 2026 · GOV.UK: grant allocations (updated 2 July 2026), apply page, Warm Homes Loan Scheme rules · Greater London Authority: Warm Homes: Local Grant, Solar Together London · Brent Council, Warm Homes Local Grant · Enfield Council, Warm Homes Local Grant · Havering Council, Energy advice · Haringey Council: Assistance and grants, Power Boost Haringey · Waltham Forest Council: So far, solar good (24 March 2026, read 15 October 2026), Energy Upgrade Loan · Harrow Council, Living Harrow 2023–2030 · Ofgem: ECO, Smart Export Guarantee · HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6 · ONS, Census 2021 TS054 Tenure (Nomis) · European Commission JRC, PVGIS · Energy Saving Trust, solar costs. Read 19 October 2026 unless dated; Census figures from ONS Census 2021 via Nomis, ward totals our arithmetic.
Solar panel grants in North London: your questions
Are "free solar panels" offers in North London genuine?
Only as an income-linked scheme with criteria. In the seven boroughs that means the Warm Homes: Local Grant, run through the GLA-led London consortium, and ECO4 until 31 December 2026. The GLA warns that people have asked Londoners for fees of £300 to £1,500 to secure an application or arrange solar panels, and says neither it nor its delivery partner will ever charge to confirm eligibility or to install. An offer that skips the questions about income, savings and your home's EPC rating is selling something.
Is Solar Together open in North London?
Not at the moment. Solar Together now trades as Switch Together, and on 19 October 2026 its pages for Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Havering and Waltham Forest all said it was not active in the area, inviting residents to register interest. No round dates are published. It is a group-buy, not a grant: you still pay for the system, at a pooled price.
How do I apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant in Barnet, Harrow or Enfield?
Not through an installer. All seven boroughs are members of the London consortium led by the Greater London Authority, so applications start from GOV.UK’s Warm Homes: Local Grant checker or the GLA’s page; Haringey points residents to the Mayor of London’s site. Brent and Havering say the scheme is not delivered by the council directly and that waits are longer because of demand, and Enfield says it has had over 400 expressions of interest and that not all eligible homes will be upgraded.
I rent from the council or a housing association in Tottenham. Can I apply?
Not for this grant at present. Haringey Council says Londoners renting from a housing association or local council are not currently supported by the Warm Homes: Local Grant, and GOV.UK’s test is a home privately owned by you or your landlord. Across Tottenham’s eight wards 34.0% of households rent socially (our sum of the 2021 Census ward counts), so for many households the question is for the landlord: Haringey has announced a programme to retrofit its council homes.
Is there VAT on solar panels and batteries in North London?
Not on a residential installation at present: 0% until 31 March 2027, then 5% from 1 April 2027, under HMRC VAT Notice 708/6. It applies to every household in the seven boroughs without an application, whether the system comes through a group-buy round or an independent quote.
Get a straight answer for your North London home
Send us your postcode and a recent bill, and we will tell you plainly whether solar stacks up on your roof without a grant, and what it would cost, itemised in writing. If the Warm Homes: Local Grant or a borough fund looks open to your household, we will say so first. Call 0204 547 1892 or use the form.
Also see: solar panels across North London · solar panel cost in North London · planning permission in North London