Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current level of charging points for electric vehicles in rural areas as opposed to urban areas; and what plans they have to roll out more charging points across the country.

Chargepoints are being added to the public network at a growing rate, with larger increases in 2021 and 2022 than in any year seen previously. To date, the Government and industry have supported the installation of over 38,700 publicly available charging devices in the UK including more than 7,400 rapid devices.

However, the majority (around 75%) of electric car charging happens at home, as it is often cheaper and more convenient for drivers. The Government expects home charging will remain central to the future charging behaviour of drivers.

The below table provides an estimate of the number of electric vehicle (EV) charging devices in England, as of 1 January 2023, situated in local authorities that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has classified as either urban or rural respectively as a whole. This includes both public charging devices and private charging devices or sockets funded through the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) supported grant schemes.

Note: Home Charging Devices are a sum of charging devices funded through EV Homecharging Scheme and Domestic Recharging Scheme. A further 1,515 charging sockets have been funded separately through EV Chargepoint Grants.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the deployment of EV charging infrastructure happens across all areas of the country. Already, over the last 7 months, through the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot, the Government has awarded just over £31 million of public funding to 25 local authorities across England. This portfolio of projects looks to deliver over 3,000 chargepoints.

One aim of the LEVI Fund is to address regional charging inequality and ensure no part of the country is left behind. The Government has developed a data-led allocation model to award the funding, which considers factors such as the level of rurality and the number of vehicles without off-street parking within the local authority.