Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of electric vehicle charging points in towns and cities in England.

The Government is providing £500 million over the next five years to support the rollout of infrastructure for electric vehicles through a range of grant schemes which are available for both urban and rural areas. Part of this is our On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), which assists local authorities with the cost of installing chargepoints on residential streets. Government funding has been doubled to £20 million for the ORCS in 2020/21. This could help fund up to 7,200 chargepoints and make charging at home and overnight easier for those without an off-street parking space. The Government has also provided £40m of funding, via our Go Ultra Low city scheme, to 8 cities across the UK to support the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles in those cities. To date, over 300 chargepoints have been installed as part of this scheme. Additional charging hubs will be installed across the country later this year such as a new hub in York. We have also consulted on proposals for chargepoint infrastructure to be installed in all newly built homes and non-residential buildings in England, where appropriate.