Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure the adequate provision of charging infrastructure for electric cars in towns and villages by 2035.

We are currently investing nearly £1.5bn? between April 2015 and March 2021, with grants available for plug in vehicles, as well schemes to support charge point infrastructure at homes and workplaces and on residential streets. Government and industry have supported the installation of over 17,000 devices providing over 24,000 publicly available chargepoints. This includes over 2,400 rapid chargepoints – one of the largest networks in Europe. Our grant schemes and our £400m public-private Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund will see thousands more electric vehicle chargepoints installed across the UK. The first £70 million of the Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund will create 3,000 new rapid chargepoints, more than doubling the number of rapid chargepoints across the UK by 2024. Along with the private sector, the Government will invest £1 billion in charging infrastructure – making sure that everyone is within 30 miles of a rapid charging station. On 21 January, we announced that Government has doubled the value of the On-street Residential Charging Scheme for 2020-2021 to £10 million to support the provision of up to 3,600 chargepoints for those that don’t have off-street parking.