1. Could you send me the paperwork that justifies this claim about solartogether:
"The scheme makes it easier and cheaper for you to install solar panels onto your home"
Public interest: You are endorsing Solartogether, a dutch company run for profit. To make it legal for you to endorse, you have to be able to back up claims such as the one above with data.
There is information available on the Solar Together website, and Wokingham Borough Council website with further information on the scheme.
How the scheme is easier:
Solar Together does all the research, pre-vetting and qualification of installers on behalf of residents. The offer is presented in a simple way allowing residents 4 weeks to decide if they wish to accept or not. The registration process is free, so anyone can receive their free personal offer to then make an informed decision on whether they wish to proceed with solar panels. 

How the scheme is cheaper: 
Solar Together pools a group of customers from one region together and then presents these customers to pre-vetted and qualified installers at a reverse auction. The bidding installers are able to provide a discount price against the market due to the scheme supplying a large number of customers.

Solar Together works with Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) to understand regional pricing trends to calculate market price indication.  MCS provides Solar Together with region-specific data covering the sizes of installations in a region and the price paid for them over the last 6 months. This enables Solar Together to generate the typical market price for each system size offered through the scheme, and to calculate the discount we have achieved through the scheme against that typical market price.

With this information, Solar Together can indicate the discount against the market at the time of the auction. For the Berkshire 2023 scheme, an average discount of 35% against the market was secured and for this year it was 38% - of course this differs depending on the number of panels a household install.

Internal Review:

"Whilst I can see the Service have supplied you with their explanation, and I can understand their attempts to resolve in this manner, this hasn’t fulfilled your request as you are seeking the evidence to back up the statements made.

The first document is publicly available and is published by SolarTogether, however for ease I have included it as an attachment to this response. This details the process that they follow and what actions they take that the members of the public do not have to deal with themselves. This document would cover the portion about it being easier for a member of the public, rather than them having to do the process alone by themselves.

The second document relates to the portion about it being cheaper. The Council have had to redact the price and bench marking price from the document as this would be considered to be commercially sensitive (Section 43(2) exemption). In disclosing the pricing information (either column as you would be able to work out from the %) would provide competitors an advantage and develop their own strategies which would give an unfair advantage. The public interest has been considered, however, the exemption is maintained in this instance."