People in Alton ask us two versions of the same question: is there a grant for a home battery, and is the council’s group-buying scheme open? We checked the primary sources on 16 October 2026. The short answer is that help exists, but it is narrower than many people expect, and the group scheme was not open in East Hampshire on that date. This guide sets out what the council has committed to, which schemes are live, which are not, and what that leaves for an ordinary Alton household. For the battery decision itself, see our page on battery storage in Alton.
What East Hampshire District Council has committed to
East Hampshire District Council has two targets: net zero carbon for its own services by 2035, and a net zero carbon district by 2050. Its Climate and Environment Strategy 2024–29 has energy as one of five themes, and the council’s energy page states the aim plainly: to “increase renewable energy generation and storage”. In Alton that has turned into money for community buildings rather than homes. The Community Climate Action Fund paid £18,000 towards solar at Alton Community Centre in March 2023, and £8,000 each to Alton Rugby Club and the Grain House Trust, for panels at Alton Maltings, in August 2024. Those were grants to community projects, not a route a household can apply through.
Switch Together: not active in East Hampshire on 16 October
Switch Together is the new name for Solar Together, the group-buying scheme in which pre-vetted installers bid in a reverse auction to supply solar and battery systems to everyone who registers. Hampshire County Council has backed it, and its East Hampshire pages offer both solar with battery and battery-only products. But when we checked on 16 October 2026, the East Hampshire page said the scheme was not active in the area yet and invited residents to register to be told when the next scheme launches. No round name, auction date or registration status was published for East Hampshire. We will not guess at a date. If a round opens, registering costs nothing, and the sensible use of its offer is as one quote to compare against another on the same specification.
The Warm Homes: Local Grant
The Warm Homes: Local Grant is the government’s income-linked retrofit scheme in England. On GOV.UK’s list of successful local authorities, updated 2 July 2026, East Hampshire appears as a consortium member under Portsmouth, a consortium allocated £34,807,254. The council’s own energy page encourages eligible people, mainly low-income families, to apply for a grant through the Warmer Homes scheme.
Eligibility is set nationally. The home must be in England, privately owned (by you or your landlord) and rated EPC D, E, F or G, and household income must usually be £36,000 a year or less, with routes for eligible postcodes and certain benefits. If the council has funding, it arranges a survey, and suggested improvements can include solar panels. Batteries are funded only alongside solar, so this is not a battery-only grant. Because 65.1% of Alton households own their home, many will meet the ownership test; the income and EPC tests are what decide it.
What that leaves for most Alton households
For a household that does not qualify for the Warm Homes: Local Grant, there is no general government grant for solar or batteries in England. The help that applies to everyone is VAT: residential installations of solar panels and batteries carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, whether the battery is fitted with panels or on its own, reverting to 5% from 1 April 2027. Our guide to VAT on solar panels and batteries explains it. The Energy Saving Trust puts a 5 kWh home battery at around £4,600 and says fitting storage with panels costs less than a separate visit later. That is a national figure, not our price.
Free, impartial advice in Alton
Energy Alton, a volunteer-run group that grew out of the 2009 Greening Alton and Holybourne campaign, has offered free home energy surveys since 2010, with impartial advice and thermal imaging. In 2014 it put a 10 kW solar array on Alton Library. If you want a no-strings view of your home before talking to any installer, ours included, it is a sensible first call.
The network side
Alton is on SSEN’s Southern Electric Power Distribution network, and SSEN’s £10.6 million Alton-to-Bordon project, run from May 2023 to September 2024, replaced 18 km of cable from the Alton substation to strengthen supplies for low-carbon technologies. A battery is notified to SSEN under G98 up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW), with a G99 approval needed first above that. Our solar panels Alton page covers the conservation areas and housing, the solar panels Hampshire hub covers the county, and our guide to battery storage without solar panels covers the battery-only route. If a battery does not stack up for your home without a grant, we will say so.
Sources: East Hampshire District Council, Climate and environment, Energy objectives and Community Climate Action Fund pages (read 16 October 2026); Switch Together, East Hampshire solar and battery pages (read 16 October 2026); Hampshire County Council news, 19 August 2024; GOV.UK, Warm Homes: Local Grant successful local authorities (updated 2 July 2026) and Apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant; HMRC VAT Notice 708/6; Energy Saving Trust, Battery storage (updated 19 August 2026); Census 2021 via censusdata.uk, Alton TS054; Energy Alton, Our story; Alton Town Council, Alton to Bordon Network Investment Project; ENA EREC G98 Issue 2.