Oral Answers to Questions

Neale Hanvey Excerpts

Thursday 9th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to support the roll-out of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

[Neale Hanvey (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) (Alba)]

16. What recent progress has been made on the roll-out of electric vehicle charging points.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Rachel Maclean)]

It is very appropriate that my hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble (Katherine Fletcher) has asked this question because today is World EV Day. We are investing £1.3 billion in accelerating the roll-out of charging infrastructure over the next four years. On average, over 500 new chargers are added each month.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rachel Maclean]

I thank my hon. Friend for all the hard work she has done on her ten-minute rule Bill, which addresses a vital issue. We in Government are going to act. We have heard her calls and those of her residents. We will publish our consultation response on requiring all new residential and non-residential buildings to have a charge point, and we intend to lay legislation later this year. We have also confirmed our intention to mandate that home and workplace electric vehicle chargers must be capable of smart charging.

[Neale Hanvey]

The continued roll-out of electric vehicles and the 25,000 charging point milestone is to be welcomed, but how confident is the Minister that the investment in charging points, particularly in remote and rural areas, will meet the scale of the challenge when committed investment is still a twenty-fifth of the £1 billion earmarked from the far from carbon-neutral HS2?

[Rachel Maclean]

The hon. Gentleman will be aware that his constituents in Scotland, like those across the whole country, are benefiting from the UK Government’s funding support: £1.3 billion is being spent on grants, charge point infrastructure, installation, and tax breaks on electric vehicle motoring. That is a significant sum and it is benefiting his constituents in Scotland.