Draft Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021

Mike Kane Excerpts

Wednesday 8th December 2021 General Committees

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

It is pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I am disappointed that Bolton Wanderers are slipping slightly in the league table, but I am sure they will turn the season round before we know it.

I wish to raise a few points about the statutory instrument. We agree that stopping the sale of non-electric vehicles by 2030 is the right thing to do, but my colleagues and I are concerned that there is no legislation governing the resale of diesel and petrol vehicles in the second-hand market going forward. Another concern we have raised is that, as the Minister has said, the Government have finally adopted Labour’s policy of phasing out the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, but hybrid vehicles will still be sold until 2035. If it is a genuine commitment, there seems to be a lack of joined-up thinking from Government in their policy on this matter. Without sufficient infrastructure and charging points available to all across the nation, we can see people using an electric car for day-to-day journeys and retaining an older, more polluting vehicle for longer trips. I have not checked with the House of Commons Library today, but we currently have about 40 million registered vehicles on our roads. We know our road infrastructure cannot cope with that, but we are worried that people will retain their old polluting cars and get an electric vehicle. We know what savage chaos and congestion that will cause up and down our land.

When we drive our petrol or diesel vehicles 250 miles to see family or for a holiday in this country, we all know that we will be able to access fuel on arrival. Can the same be said for accessing a working charge point everywhere in the country? Fully electric and hybrid vehicle sales have surged this year, making up more than a quarter of new vehicle sales in 2021, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. However, the UK’s charging infrastructure is falling behind and overall funding for charging given out to local authorities has fallen from £15 million in 2019-20 to 6.5 million in 2020-21. Many local authorities are having to use available funds for remaining schemes and not every dwelling has a parking spot.

I do not need to tell anyone in this Room that Storm Arwen, which hit this country almost two weeks ago, has wreaked havoc on the nation’s power supply. This was raised by my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Mary Kelly Foy) at Prime Minister’s question, and I have the massive Durham contingent of my hon. Friend the Member for Easington and my right hon. Friend then Member for North Durham behind me in Committee today. There are areas in the north of England that are still without power. How can the Government guarantee that in such circumstances there will be capacity to charge electric vehicles? It goes without saying that emergency vehicles must be able to charge their EVs regardless. What can the Government do to provide assurances that essential car users such as carers, NHS workers, police, the fire service, hauliers and food deliverers will be able to charge their vehicles? It has been 10 days since that storm.

We must be mindful of the fact that wi-fi coverage will be necessary to charge vehicles. What steps will be taken to ensure that customers will be able to recharge? I am not alone in not always having mobile coverage in this country. If I want to drive to holiday in the Orkney islands, as I regularly do, will I be able to? That is a 500-mile journey from Manchester, and EV vehicles can currently only cover about half of that journey. In the capital and other major cities, we have excellent mobile signal coverage, but is that the same in our rural areas and highlands? That needs to be addressed by the Minister.

The Government promised a charging strategy by the end of the year. Today is 8 December. Where is it? We need action to address regional inequalities and quickly ramp up charging to ensure that it is both easy to use and accessible to customers. Can the Minster provide an update on that strategy? She is correct in saying that the transition to electric vehicles is a huge opportunity for cleaner, lower emissions, and has the potential to create thousands of good green jobs, highly trade unionised across our country. However, the Government need to think bigger when it comes to charging infrastructure, affordability, and the supply chain.