Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve the (a) availability and (b) accessibility of electric vehicle charge points in (i) rural areas and villages and (ii) the South Cotswolds.

The Government is committed to accelerating the roll-out of affordable and accessible charging infrastructure so that everyone, no matter where they live or work, can make the transition to an electric vehicle (EV).

The South Cotswolds constituency will benefit from both Gloucestershire County Council’s £3.7m and Wiltshire Council’s £4.4m capital and resource funding as part of the £381m Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, to transform the availability of EV charging for drivers without off-street parking in the area. The LEVI Fund is expected to leverage significant further private investment and support the installation of at least 100,000 local chargepoints across England.

LEVI funding allocations factored in the proportion of residents within the local authority that are in rural areas. This means local authorities in rural areas were allocated additional funding compared to urban ones.

A range of Government grants are also available to support the installation of charging infrastructure in homes, workplaces and schools: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/electric-vehicle-chargepoint-grants.