Bourne Hall, the domed library and social centre beside the Hogsmill’s source in Ewell village, has carried a 52.2 kWp solar array on its roof since late 2024, and the council’s January 2026 progress update records feasibility studies for solar and battery systems at three more of its sites: the Nonsuch Mansion garages, the Harrier Centre and Auriol Pavilion. The borough council is clearly thinking about batteries for its own buildings. The question for an Ewell household is what help exists for one at home. This guide sets out each route and its status on the date we checked; for siting, grid paperwork and power cuts, see our guide to battery storage in Ewell.
In short: one group-buying scheme, paused; one grant, live but narrow; and one national VAT relief that applies to everyone.
What the council has committed to
Epsom and Ewell Borough Council committed to tackling climate change on 23 July 2019, and in 2020 it set a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2035. That is a target for the council’s own operations, and the council is candid that less than 1% of the borough’s emissions sit under its direct control. It works to published Climate Change Action Plans, the current one running from 2025 to 2029.
The visible work is on council roofs: 266 kWp of solar on the Rainbow Leisure Centre, Bourne Hall and Epsom Playhouse. At Bourne Hall alone, the council expects the array to generate about 45,000 kWh a year, a quarter of the building’s electricity, and in 2025 all 290 of its windows were replaced with double glazing. The three battery feasibility studies are the next step, with business cases and funding options still being explored. None of it is money for households, but it shows the borough testing the same kit a Nonsuch or Ewell Court house might use.
Switch Together: four rounds, now paused
The council says it has supported four rounds of Solar Together, the Surrey group-buying scheme run with iChoosr, and that the fourth was launched in summer 2025. The first three fitted 157 household solar systems, 132 batteries and 18 EV chargepoints across the borough. That record matters for Ewell: some homes here already have panels from those rounds and no battery yet.
The scheme now trades as Switch Together. When we checked its Epsom and Ewell page on 18 October 2026, it read “We’re not open in your area at the moment” and invited residents to register for the next launch, with no round dates. The same page says battery storage and EV chargers are available through the scheme and links to a battery-only route for households that already have solar panels. If you fall in that group, that route is the one to watch. Our earlier post on what three Solar Together rounds show covers the solar side of that record.
The Warm Homes: Local Grant through Surrey
GOV.UK’s list of successful councils, updated 2 July 2026, names Epsom and Ewell first among the members of the Surrey-led consortium, funded at £13,914,375. The national rules are strict:
- the home must be in England and privately owned, by you or a private landlord;
- it must have an EPC of D, E, F or G;
- the household must qualify on income, usually £36,000 a year or less, a means-tested benefit, or an eligible postcode;
- DESNZ’s guidance funds a battery only alongside solar PV, not on its own.
Ewell is a borough of owners, 79.3% across its five wards at the 2021 Census, and the Local Intelligence Hub estimates fuel poverty across the constituency at 11.3%, against a national 17.9%. Owning your home does not qualify you, and the income, benefit or postcode test is the one that decides. The council’s climate page points residents to Surrey County Council’s Greener Futures site for the latest grants and says more than 1,360 energy efficiency measures had been installed in homes in the borough through grant funding up to June 2025. Ask there before planning around the grant.
The national pieces that apply in Ewell anyway
- VAT. HMRC’s VAT Notice 708/6 zero-rates residential battery installations until 31 March 2027, with or without panels, and the rate reverts to 5% from 1 April 2027. Our guide to VAT on solar panels and batteries has the detail.
- ECO4. Ofgem says it runs until 31 December 2026; it is an energy-company obligation for eligible households, not a battery fund.
- No general grant. England has no general government grant for household batteries, so treat any offer of something for nothing with care.
Setting a scheme against a quote in Ewell
When a Switch Together round reopens, its offer is a real one, priced through a reverse auction. Compare it with an independent quote on the same specification: usable battery capacity, inverter, warranty, the UK Power Networks paperwork, and whether backup is included, since a standard grid-tied battery shuts down in a power cut. In Ewell two local checks belong on both quotes. If the house is in the Ewell Village, Ewell Downs Road/The Green or Higher Green/Longdown Lane North conservation areas, which carry Article 4 directions from February 2000, keep an outdoor unit off the street-facing side. And if it is one of the 79 Grade II listed entries inside the Ewell Village boundary, ask the council before anything is fixed.
If panels are part of the plan, our page on solar panels in Ewell covers the roof and the conservation areas, and the Surrey solar panels hub covers the county’s schemes.
Sources: Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, Climate change page (read 18 October 2026), news of 13 December 2024 and Climate Change Action Plan progress update (January 2026); Switch Together, Epsom and Ewell solar panels page (read 18 October 2026); Surrey County Council, Solar Together pages; GOV.UK, Warm Homes: Local Grant successful local authorities (updated 2 July 2026) and Apply for the Warm Homes: Local Grant; mySociety Local Intelligence Hub, Epsom and Ewell constituency (End Fuel Poverty Coalition data); ONS Census 2021, TS054 for Ewell’s five 2022 wards; HMRC, VAT Notice 708/6; Ofgem, Energy Company Obligation; Historic England and planning.data.gov.uk listed-building entries; Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, Article 4 Directions.