Mark Pawsey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pawsey on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support his Department is offering to local authorities to promote the provision of electric car charging points.

Andrew Jones

This Government has committed to spend more than £600 million in this Parliament to support the uptake and manufacturing of electric vehicles in the UK. 61 Local Authorities have already benefitted from £12.8m of funding to deploy chargepoints across the UK. This included 253 rapid chargepoints and 587 fast chargepoints in train stations and public sector workplaces. The UK now has over 11,000 public chargepoints.

In January Bristol, London, Milton Keynes and Nottingham were awarded funding of £35 million to promote green vehicles, as winners of the Go Ultra Low city scheme. A further £5m was awarded to the North East Combined Authority, Dundee, York and Oxford. We estimate that this scheme will deliver around 750 new publically accessible charge points. Our Local Authority-led schemes for low emission buses and taxis will also contribute towards the cost of new charging infrastructure, and we will shortly announce details of further support for the UK’s growing charging network.

In addition to public infrastructure provision, grants of £500 are available towards the cost of installing a domestic chargepoint, with over 18,000 now installed.