Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the rate of VAT on public electric vehicle charging points to five per cent, in the context of (a) the VAT rate for domestic energy and (b) encouraging people to buy electric vehicles.

In order to keep costs down for families, the supply of electricity for domestic use, including charging an electric vehicle (EV) at home, attracts the reduced rate of VAT (five per cent). However, electricity supplied at EV charging points in public places is subject to the standard rate of VAT (twenty per cent).

The Government has not specifically introduced a reduced rate for charging EVs at home. However, the practical challenges of differentiating between the electricity used at home for general domestic purposes, and electricity used to charge EVs currently mean that the reduced rate is effectively being applied to EV charging at home.

Harmonising the rate of VAT on electricity for public and domestic charging points for electric vehicles would require the Government to expand the existing VAT relief on electricity for domestic use (that is also used to charge EVs at home) to electricity for use at public EV charge points and this would come at a cost.

The Government has committed £2.5 billion since 2020 to support the transition to zero emission vehicles, which funds targeted vehicle grants and the rollout of EVs and charging infrastructure.