Electric vehicle charging infrastructure: help for local authorities
Get help as a local authority with the rollout of chargepoint infrastructure and other electric vehicle information.
The transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) will help the UK to meet our legally binding climate change targets. It will improve air quality in our towns and cities and support economic growth. It will also put us at the forefront of the electric vehicle (EV) revolution with many vehicles built in the UK.
In 2020, the Prime Minister announced that we will end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, with all new cars and vans being fully zero emission at the tailpipe from 2035.
Building on the £1.9 billion from the Spending Review 2020, the government has committed an additional £620 million to support the transition to EVs.
The additional funding will support the rollout of charging infrastructure with a particular focus on local on-street residential charging and targeted plug-in vehicle grants.
The total funding committed by this government to vehicle grants and infrastructure is £2.5 billion.
Local leadership in this transition is crucial. Local authorities have a crucial role to play in enabling the transition to ZEVs in their areas, including:
- proactively supporting and delivering the rollout of electric vehicle chargepoints
- helping to ensure the transition is integrated into wider local transport and community needs
The government acknowledges this is a new and complex area for local authorities. This can lead to actual or perceived barriers to a successful rollout of EV charging infrastructure.
This guidance provides resources for local authorities, linking to relevant government publications and support, and advice from relevant external bodies. It will be updated as new laws, regulations and examples of best practice develop.
Role and importance of local authorities
The EV Infrastructure Strategy sets out clear expectations for major stakeholders, including local authorities.
Local authorities are responsible for overarching planning policies in their areas, including street alternations and parking.
In Great Britain, they also own lampposts and bollards, which can be adapted to incorporate public charging, as already demonstrated in many areas.
Many local authorities also own local car parks, which can be adapted to include local charging infrastructure.
Importantly, local authorities understand the transport needs of their local population, which they should be considering as part of transportation planning.
Roles vary across tiers of local government along with powers and related competencies – and charging strategies vary between areas, based on local needs and contexts. Through policies and published strategies, local authorities can facilitate and help guide the market to deliver to meet the charging needs of residents, businesses and visitors.
Writing or being part of an EV infrastructure strategy is vital to establishing objectives, ways of working, responsibilities and a pathway to delivery.
Even in places where a two-tier structure exists, district and borough councils must work with the relevant Highways Authority on a coordinated strategy and delivery for EV chargepoints.
Leading areas often cite a coordinated suite of activities as being helpful to address the EV charging needs of residents, businesses and visitors, for example:
Publishing a long-term strategy to meet the EV charging needs in a local authority or region
This could include considering how best to align wider net zero policies, including those in transport and energy.
Considering options to decarbonise vehicle fleets operating in the local area
This could include implementing a plan to electrify local authority vehicles, supporting eCar clubs and the infrastructure needed for taxis and private hire vehicles to electrify.
Engaging broadly with local business and the public
This could include awareness-raising activities to ensure residents, businesses and visitors are aware of EV charging infrastructure, and ‘try before you buy’ vehicle schemes.
Funding schemes
On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme
A significant national and local policy challenge is how to ensure sufficient provision of EV chargepoints for residents without private parking.
Available to all UK local authorities, the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) provides funding towards the capital costs of installing public charging infrastructure for residents without private parking. It supports installations both on-street and in local authority-owned residential car parks.
In the financial year 2022 to 2023, £37 million is available through ORCS.
If a local authority needs guidance or support to bid for ORCS funding, Energy Saving Trust is funded by the government to provide free, impartial advice and feedback throughout the application stage.
Energy Saving Trust’s Local Government Support Programme can also help.
Local EV Infrastructure Fund
To be launched in 2023, the Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund will help local authorities leverage private sector investment into their local charging networks and put in place long-term, sustainable charging infrastructure.
To ensure the new LEVI fund is designed in a way to best support local authorities in delivery, we launched a £10 million pilot and winners were announced in August 2022. We announced an extended pilot in February 2023 to expand funding to an additional 16 local authorities.
In addition, an £8 million LEVI Capability Fund launched for the financial years 2022 and 2023 to provide an injection of upfront resource funding to help ensure local authorities in England have dedicated staff to undertake the planning and delivery of local EV chargepoints in their areas.
Workplace Charging Scheme
The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) can help local authorities to electrify their own fleets and help transition their staff to EVs, supporting them in their environmental commitments.
The WCS is a voucher-based scheme open to all local authorities. It provides support towards the upfront costs of the purchase and installation of EV chargepoints that are dedicated to staff or fleet use. The scheme provides up to £350 for each chargepoint socket installed at a site, with applicants being able to receive up to 40 grants.
In 2022, the WCS will be opened to small accommodation businesses and the charity sector. This will help to accelerate EV uptake in rural areas and support the UK tourist industry.
Additional help will be provided to small- and medium-sized enterprises to fund their staff or fleet carparks.
A new fund, worth up to £15,000 per site, will also be created to boost the help government gives SMEs to install chargepoints for their staff and fleets.
EV chargepoint grants for homes
Local authorities that own social housing can apply for the EV chargepoint grant for landlords. This provides grants of up to £350 towards the cost of purchasing and installing a chargepoint, with up to 200 grants a year available for each local authority.
Additional support is also available for local authorities to help install EV chargepoints in residential apartment block parking spaces. The EV chargepoint grant for residential carparks provides grants of up to £30,000 towards the cost of installing EV chargepoints in such properties.
Rapid Charging Fund
The Rapid Charging Fund will ensure that there is an ultra-rapid charging network along motorways and major A-roads ready to meet the long-term consumer demand for electric vehicle chargepoints ahead of need.
It will be available to fund a portion of costs at strategic sites where upgrading connections to the electricity grid is prohibitively expensive and uncommercial.
In the shorter term, we’re working with industry to ensure that every motorway service area in England has at least 6 ultra-rapid chargepoints by the end of 2023, including through the Green Recovery Scheme, which is providing network upgrades at over 50 service stations.
The work of electricity network operators to upgrade the electricity network along motorways and A-roads will be vital to the rollout of ultra-rapid chargepoints. We encourage local authorities to work positively and proactively with electricity network operators on all works related to this project.
Support, advice and guidance
Local Government Support Programme
The Local Government Support Programme shares knowledge, upskills officers and accelerates project delivery.
It is run by the Energy Saving Trust and is free to access. It covers areas such as developing and delivering a chargepoint network and broader matters such as community engagement and transitioning to zero emission taxis and private hire vehicles.
Best practice guides
Energy Saving Trust has several best practice guides that contain pragmatic advice and informative case studies. These are a useful reference resource for local authority officers who are developing and managing high-quality public charging infrastructure networks.
Energy Saving Trust also provides a document that brings together links to resources for local authorities in the UK on different aspects of planning, delivering and operating public EV charging infrastructure (PDF, 281KB) . Produced by numerous public and private sector organisations over the last few years, the resources include research reports, policy briefings, collections of statistics and information on grant schemes and procurement frameworks.
Procuring chargepoints
The Chargepoint Procurement Guide (PDF, 1.5MB) describes the increasing range of options open to local authorities to fund and manage public chargepoints, illustrated by extensive case studies.
Design considerations for electric chargepoint vehicles helps organisations installing chargepoints consider the role that design can play in ensuring a positive experience for consumers and those using the wider environment (such as pedestrians).
Connecting to the electricity network
This guidance on connecting to the electricity network takes a local authority through how to connect to the electricity network, sets out the process and includes links to useful extra resources. It contains links to explanations of terms for clarity.
UK Power Networks have undertaken an innovation project, Charge Collective, in collaboration with local authorities to facilitate further investment in public charging infrastructure. The Charge Collective handbook (PDF, 4MB) provides guidance for selecting the areas and sites for socially-optimal chargepoints, as well as guidance on network planning and the process for connecting to the distribution network.
Electrification of depots
Midlands Net Zero Hub have produced a guide to help local authorities electrify their council depots. This guidance provides local authorities with an understanding of what EV infrastructure will be needed within their fleet depots and illustrating worked examples with case studies.
Official statistics
Department for Transport
The Department for Transport publishes statistics on the number of publicly available EV charging devices and rapid charging devices in the UK, broken down by local authority.
This map shows the density of charging devices by local authority. Viewing options are:
- all devices
- devices per 100,000 population
- rapid devices
Where a device has more than one speed of connector, it is classified as the ‘highest-speed available’. Local authorities can use this information to observe how their area compares with others around the UK.
The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) provides grants to support the use of EVs in the UK, including the installation of charging devices. This summary covers statistics on selected grant schemes currently running, including EV chargepoint grants, WCS and ORCS.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT)
SMMT is the country’s primary source of news and vehicle data on the motor industry. SMMT is uniquely placed to help members stay one step ahead of the competition in its business planning and forecasting. SMMT releases monthly data detailing new car registration and uptake.
Latest policy reports
EV Infrastructure Strategy
The mains aims of the UK EV infrastructure strategy are:
- to define the government’s vision and action plan for EV infrastructure
- set expectations for the roles and responsibilities for major stakeholders
- set out how current and future barriers to rollout will be addressed
- make clear where government will and will not intervene in the market
Transitioning to zero emission cars and vans: 2035 delivery plan
This delivery plan sets out significant milestones towards the phase out dates for petrol and diesel cars and vans. It is of value to those in local authorities working to support ZEVs locally, as it shows the national policy initiatives and investment to help meet our phase out dates, including significant milestones and how we will monitor progress.
The transport decarbonisation plan
The transport decarbonisation plan sets out the government’s commitments and the actions needed to decarbonise the entire transport system in the UK.
This goes wider than EVs and shows how the government’s action on the transition to ZEVs fits into wider decarbonisation commitments. The place-based section contains commitments around further guidance for local authorities and changes to local transport plans.
Local authority toolkit
As committed in the transport decarbonisation plan, we published a local authority toolkit providing guidance to support local areas to deliver more sustainable transport measures.
Upcoming policy report
EV infrastructure technical guidance for local authorities
We are working with the Institution of Engineering and Technology to produce an authoritative guide for local authorities on developing EV infrastructure in their areas.
Last updated 30 March 2023 + show all updates
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Added information about the LEVI Capability Fund.
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First published.