Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support his Department is providing to local authorities on delivering the UK electric vehicle infrastructure strategy.

Our UK electric vehicle charging infrastructure strategy sets out our vision and commitments to make EV charging cheaper and more convenient than refuelling at a petrol station. It also defines the role and responsibilities of local authorities in the delivery of charging infrastructure, and provides a vision for national rollout. Of the £2.5 billion of Government funding committed to the EV transition since 2020, over £1.6 billion will be used to support charging infrastructure.

To ensure that the transition to electric vehicles takes place in every part of the country, we are pledging at least £500m to support local chargepoint provision. As part of this, the Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) fund will provide approximately £400m of capital and £50m of resource funding to support English local authorities to work with industry and transform the availability of charging for drivers without off-street parking. We have launched a £10m pilot as a springboard for the development of the full fund.

We have launched a local government knowledge hub on gov.uk to make information and guidance on local EV chargepoint planning and delivery easy to access. The LA Hub carries an extensive list of guidance from government and external bodies related to EV infrastructure rollout. The website also acts as a central portal to highlight new and upcoming policies and support from central government. We will also continue to fund Energy Saving Trust to run the Local Government Support Programme providing free, impartial advice to local authorities in England to help them develop local policies and strategies to support EV uptake.

More widely, as committed in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, we have now published a range of decarbonisation ‘toolkits’, to support local authorities with their plans and policies to reduce carbon emissions from transport. This includes guidance on car clubs and fleet electrification.