Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he plans to take to ensure that people who own electric cars but do not have access to off-street parking will be able to charge their vehicles at home.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government is supporting local authorities to deploy chargepoints for their residents without access to off-street parking to ensure this is not a barrier to drivers being able to realise the benefits of owning an EV. The On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) is available to all UK local authorities, and has so far awarded funding to over 135 different local authorities, to install over 5,000 chargepoints. This year, £20 million is available under this scheme to ensure more local authorities and residents can benefit from the scheme.
A new Local EV Infrastructure fund will be made available to local authorities later in the 2022-23 financial year, which will facilitate the rollout of larger-scale chargepoint infrastructure projects across England.
Drivers without off-street parking at home can also take advantage of the Workplace Charging Scheme, which provides Government support of up to £350 towards the cost of installing a charge point socket for staff and fleet use, with a maximum of 40 sockets available per business. To date over 8,000 businesses have used this scheme to install over 19,000 chargepoint sockets. There are a growing number of solutions for drivers without private parking, such as initiatives like community charging, where those with personal chargepoints can share access with other residents.
The Government’s forthcoming EV Infrastructure Strategy will define our vision for the continued roll-out of a world-leading charging infrastructure network across the UK. The strategy will focus on how we will unlock the chargepoint rollout needed to enable the transition from early adoption to mass market uptake of EVs. We will set out our next steps to address barriers to private investment, and level up charge point provision. The strategy will clearly establish Government’s expectations for the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders in the planning and deployment of charging infrastructure alongside how we will intervene to address the gaps between the current market status and our vision, and how we will monitor progress.
Asked by: James Grundy (Conservative - Leigh)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what funding opportunities he plans to make available for investment in rail and light rail improvements.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As part of the Spending Round in 2020 over £2 billion of funding has been confirmed in 2021-22 for rail services, which builds on the estimated £12.8 billion of support for transport services that the government has already committed to provide in 2020-21.
As part of the levelling-up agenda, the Government announced in January 2020 that it has pledged £500 million for the Restoring Your Railway Programme to start reopening lines and stations, regenerating local economies and improving access to jobs, homes and education.
Between 2019 and 2024, approximately £38 billion has been allocated for investment in operations, maintenance and renewals of the rail network, of which around £20 billion is for Network Rail’s renewals programme.
To date, the Government has announced over £150 million of emergency grant funding to support the Light Rail sector. This funding has ensured that light rail services continue to run throughout the pandemic, enabling essential journeys such as those made by NHS staff and other key workers.
As announced in the 2020 Budget and confirmed in the Spending Review, the government is investing £4.2 billion in the transport networks of eight city regions across England from 2022, including Greater Manchester. These intra-city transport settlements will be based on plans put forward by city regions and could be used to fund light rail improvements.
In addition, the Transforming Cities Fund is a £2.5 billion fund focused on public and sustainable transport infrastructure. It is currently providing funding for light rail improvements in some cities, including Greater Manchester.