Solar panels, storage & EV charging in Tonbridge

The Tonbridge built-up area had 36,115 residents at the 2021 Census, up from 33,650 in 2011 and 31,147 in 2001 — growth of about 7% in a decade.

Semi-detached houses are Tonbridge's most common home type — 6,406 of the town's 15,037 households (42.6%) lived in one at the 2021 Census, with a further 18.4% in terraces, 17.3% in detached houses and 17.5% in purpose-built blocks of flats.

Nearly two-thirds of Tonbridge households own their home — 32.3% outright and another 32.3% with a mortgage, loan or shared ownership — while 19.5% rent from a social landlord and 15.9% rent privately or live rent-free (Census 2021).

At the 2021 Census, 81.2% of households in the Tonbridge built-up area (12,204 of 15,024) heated with mains gas only and 7.7% with electric heating only, while just 31 households (0.2%) relied on renewable energy alone.

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council adopted a motion in July 2019 setting out the 'aspiration for Tonbridge and Malling to be carbon neutral by 2030', and its climate change strategy runs to 2030 with an action plan updated every year.

Tonbridge Castle has been a scheduled monument since 1915 — a motte and bailey castle dating from soon after the Norman Conquest, with a 20-metre-high earthen motte and a later-13th-century gatehouse whose drum towers flank the gateway.

Between the villages of Leigh and Penshurst, the Leigh flood storage area holds back the peak of River Medway floods and releases it once the peak has passed. Completed in 1982 and covering about 278 hectares when full, it reduces flood risk to around 1,200 homes and businesses in Tonbridge and Hildenborough.

Tonbridge town is split between two postcode districts — TN9 covers the town centre and south, and TN10 the north including Higham Wood — while TN11 takes in nearby villages such as Hildenborough, Hadlow, Penshurst and Tudeley.