Nine areas of the UK offered £20m to boost public charging infrastructure

The Government is offering £20 million to nine local authorities in the UK to install install more than 1,000 electric vehicle charging points.

The Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot scheme is aimed at delivering commercial EV charging infrastructure for residents, from faster on-street charge points to larger petrol station-style charging hubs.

The LEVI scheme is backed by £10m of Government funding shared among the nine winning local authorities in the first tranche of what will be a £450m scheme, with winning pilot bids supported by an additional £9m in private funding. A further £1.9m will come from public funds across local authorities.

The local authorities winning a share of the initial £20m funding are Barnet, Dorset, Durham, Kent, Midlands Connect (with Lincolnshire as a lead authority), North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Warrington.

Decarbonisation minister Trudy Harrison said: “We want to expand and grow our world-leading network of EV charge points, working closely with industry and local government, making it even easier for those without driveways to charge their electric vehicles and support the switch to cleaner travel.

“This scheme will help to level up electric vehicle infrastructure across the country, so that everyone can benefit from healthier neighbourhoods and cleaner air.”

The new LEVI fund builds on the On-Street Residential Charge point Scheme (ORCS) which has seen almost 2,900 charge points installed so far with funding provided for approaching 10,000 additional charge points in the future.

Following growing demand from local authorities, the Government is also announcing a further £10m in funding, which has been brought forward for this year, bringing this year’s ORCS funding to £30m to help maintain ongoing installations.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: "The LEVI pilot funding is a welcome step that will give drivers in the winning areas greater confidence to make the switch to electric motoring, and will hopefully help inspire operators and local authorities across the UK to increase the roll out of chargepoints.

"With manufacturers bringing ever-growing numbers of plug-in vehicles to UK roads, we can’t risk lacklustre infrastructure holding back Britain’s world-leading electric vehicle ambitions. We need a universal right to charge electric vehicles, for all drivers, wherever they live, wherever they travel, and whatever their needs."