The Surrey edge of the patch
Solar panel grants in Surrey
What help actually exists towards a domestic solar system on the southern band of the county we reach from Washington, what each scheme is, who qualifies — and the three things that are routinely called grants and are not.
At a glance
There is no general solar panel grant in Surrey — or anywhere in England. The Feed-in Tariff closed to new systems in 2019. What does exist for a Dorking, Reigate, Horley, Cranleigh or Haslemere household: the Warm Homes: Local Grant for eligible low-income homes rated EPC D to G, delivered by Waverley, Mole Valley or Reigate & Banstead; zero-rate VAT, already in a proper quote; the Smart Export Guarantee, which pays for what you export; and Switch Together Surrey, which is a price, not a grant. Against an Energy Saving Trust average of about £7,600 for a home system (read 6 October 2026), the VAT treatment and the export income are what move the sum for most households on the Surrey edge.
The four schemes, side by side
| Scheme | What it does | Who it is for | How | Is it a grant? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm Homes: Local Grant | Energy-efficiency measures for an eligible Surrey home, which “could include” solar panels | Low-income households in privately owned homes rated EPC D to G in Waverley, Mole Valley or Reigate & Banstead | Through the district or borough council for your town, never a national form | Yes — a grant, for eligible homes |
| Zero-rate VAT | No VAT on domestic solar panels or batteries anywhere in Surrey | Every domestic installation | Already in a proper Surrey quote; nothing to claim | No — a tax treatment |
| Smart Export Guarantee | Octopus Energy’s Outgoing Octopus (Fixed) pays 12p a unit for what a Dorking or Reigate roof exports, correct as of June 2026 | MCS-certified installations with an export meter, on either Surrey operator | Choose any supplier offering a tariff; it need not be yours | No — an income over time |
| Switch Together Surrey | A Surrey-wide reverse auction that picks one installer and one price | Any Surrey household that registers while the round is open | Register on the scheme site, receive the offer, decide | No — a group-buying scheme |
Warm Homes: Local Grant in Surrey
The one scheme on this page that is a grant, and the one a Surrey household applies for through its own borough or district rather than nationally. From the government’s guidance page, last updated 2 July 2026 and read on 15 October 2026:
- Delivered by Waverley, Mole Valley and Reigate & Banstead for the Surrey towns we cover — England only, local authorities, no national application.
- For low-income households in privately owned homes — owner-occupied or privately rented.
- The home needs an Energy Performance Certificate rated D to G.
- The measures “could include” insulation, solar panels and an air source heat pump where suitable; the guidance does not promise solar for every eligible home.
- Funded with £500 million at the Autumn Budget, with delivery beginning in 2025.
In the part of Surrey we cover that means Waverley Borough Council for Cranleigh and Haslemere, Mole Valley District Council for Dorking, and Reigate & Banstead Borough Council for Reigate and Horley, with Surrey County Council above them. The eligibility test is income and the EPC band, and the measures are decided home by home — so the honest first step is the council’s own page, not an installer’s promise. If you qualify and solar is on the list for your house, we will survey it the same way we survey any other.
Which Surrey council to ask, and what to have ready
The Warm Homes: Local Grant is delivered by the district and borough councils, so the first call is Waverley for Cranleigh and Haslemere, Mole Valley for Dorking, and Reigate & Banstead for Reigate and Horley — not Surrey County Council, and not an installer. Have two things to hand: the Energy Performance Certificate for the house, which is on the national EPC register if you cannot find the paper copy, and the household income evidence the council asks for. The band is the first filter: an EPC of A to C puts a house outside the scheme however low the income, and a good many of the newer Horley estates will fall there.
Mole Valley declared a climate emergency on 18 June 2019 and set a carbon-neutral target of 2030 or earlier, which does not change the eligibility test but does tell you which way the officers lean when a scheme has places to fill.
The roofs we find in Surrey, the towns we reach and the planning position are on our solar panels in Surrey page; this page is only the grant side of the same decision.
Zero-rate VAT
Domestic solar panels and battery storage attract zero-rate VAT rather than the standard rate — the same on a Dorking semi as on a Cranleigh barn conversion. It is already in the price you are quoted; there is no form, nothing to claim back and nobody to apply to. Where it occasionally matters is a mixed job — solar work on the same invoice as unrelated electrical work can be treated differently — and if a quote has a VAT line you were not expecting, that is a fair question to ask. The whole of it, with the export scheme, is in zero VAT and the Smart Export Guarantee, explained plainly.
The Smart Export Guarantee in Surrey
Not a grant, but the scheme most often mistaken for one. Larger suppliers must offer an export tariff; you choose one, and it does not have to be the supplier you buy from, whether the inverter was notified to UK Power Networks at Reigate or to SSEN at Haslemere. The rate we point people to first is Octopus Energy’s Outgoing Octopus (Fixed) at 12p a unit — correct as of June 2026, cut from 15p to 12p on 1 March 2026, re-checked by November 2026. To be eligible the installation needs MCS certification, or an equivalent, and an export-capable meter; the certificate is part of what we do. Export rates sit well below what you pay to import, which is why using your own generation is where the value is and why battery storage is the next conversation. What a system is worth a year in Surrey, worked through from the official yield data, is on solar panel cost in Surrey.
Group buying in Surrey
Switch Together Surrey — the group-buying scheme formerly known as Solar Together — was open for registration when we read its page on 15 October 2026, offering solar panels, battery storage and EV chargers, and shows Surrey County Council among the local authorities it works with. It is a reverse auction with one chosen installer, not a grant: the price is the scheme’s, and so is the installer.
Switch Together Surrey, and what its offer tells you
The group-buying round is the one scheme on this page that will put a price in front of you without a visit. That price is a benchmark for a standard roof, set by a reverse auction among installers who bid for the whole county’s registrations, and it is useful even if you never register: a quote well below it has probably left something out, and a quote well above it should be able to say what it added. What the round cannot do is look at a Dorking roof before it prices it — the installer is chosen for the county, not for your house — and that is the part a free survey does.
Three things that are called grants in Surrey and are not
“Free solar panels” — nothing about a solar system is free
The rent-a-roof offers that fitted panels at no cost and kept the export income for twenty years or more largely disappeared with the Feed-in Tariff. Anything advertised as free solar panels in Surrey now deserves the paperwork read twice: who owns the panels, what happens when you sell the house, and who is paid for what. The honest version is a reduced price through a scheme you qualify for, or a system you own.
“Government-backed” finance
Finance is finance, whoever is said to be behind it. The finance calculator on our homepage shows the shape of a monthly figure for an honest system; we publish no APR there because the real one comes with the written quote, and no monthly plan is a grant however the advert phrases it.
“Your Reigate street qualifies”
Eligibility under the Warm Homes: Local Grant is tested on the household and the EPC band, not the postcode. A cold caller who says your street qualifies has checked neither.
What we will and will not do in Surrey
- A free survey first, then a written quote that names which of the four schemes above actually apply to your house.
- No scheme promised that we have not checked against your EPC band and the council’s own page.
- If the honest answer is that a grant is not available to you, we say it before anything is designed.
- Certificate the installation ourselves: MCS certified · NICEIC Approved Contractor, with the export scheme paperwork in your handover pack.
Questions we get asked in Surrey
Is there a solar panel grant in Surrey?
Not a general one. There is no national grant that pays towards solar panels for most households, and the Feed-in Tariff closed to new systems in 2019. What does exist: the Warm Homes: Local Grant for eligible low-income households in homes rated EPC D to G, delivered through the district councils; zero-rate VAT on domestic solar and batteries, which is already in a proper quote; the Smart Export Guarantee, which pays you for what you export; and Switch Together Surrey, which is group buying rather than a grant.
Who do I ask about the Warm Homes: Local Grant in Surrey?
Your district or borough council — Waverley for Cranleigh and Haslemere, Mole Valley for Dorking, Reigate & Banstead for Reigate and Horley. The scheme is delivered locally, the eligibility test is income and the EPC band, and the measures it funds are decided home by home.
The next step
Get a Surrey quote
A free survey first, then a written quote that says which of these schemes apply to your house. No scheme is promised that we have not checked against your EPC and your roof.
- Call 01243 882444
- Email hello@solar-squirrel.co.uk
- Based Washington, West Sussex
If solar genuinely won’t pay for itself on your usage, we’ll say so and save us both an afternoon.
Rather see the numbers before you speak to anybody? Put your own bill on the house — it works out the size, the saving and the payback while you watch, and brings them down to this form with you.