New homes and workplaces will have to install electric vehicle charge points

By Nicky Godding

22 November 2021

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The UK – a world leader in transport technologies of the future?

The launch of the UK’s largest high power motorway electric vehicle charging site, which features 24 high-powered 350kW EV chargers provided by GRIDSERVE, Ecotricity and Tesla at Moto's new Rugby Services. Picture date: Friday April 30, 2021. PA Photo. The Rugby site is part of Moto’s multimillion investment programme to deliver EV charging to all motorway services across the UK by 2023. Photo credit should read: Doug Peters/PA Wire

New homes and buildings such as supermarkets and workplaces, as well as those undergoing major renovation, will be required to install electric vehicle charge points from next year, under new legislation announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The Government has also announced that following a successful pilot with businesses, Innovate UK will deliver a new three-year programme of £150 million in new flexible and affordable Innovation Loans to help British SMEs commercialise their latest R&D innovations

Up to 145,000 extra charge points will be installed across England each year thanks to these regulations, in the run up to 2030 when the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will end in the UK. This builds on the more than 250,000 home and workplace charge points the government has already supported to date.

As well as new homes and non-residential buildings, those undergoing largescale renovations which leaves them with more than 10 parking spaces will be required to install electric vehicle charge points.

After consulting with industry, the Government will also be going further to make it easier and simpler for people to go electric, by introducing simpler ways to pay whilst travelling, such as contactless, at all new fast and rapid charge points.

The news comes as the Prime Minister addresses the CBI annual conference, where he’ll set out how the UK can create a first mover advantage in the biggest transformation of the global economy in 200 years, if the public and private sectors work in partnership to seize the opportunities of net zero, from electric vehicles to clean power.

The Innovate UK three-year programme supports businesses to grow, scale up and create new highly-skilled jobs in the process, including those who would have otherwise been unable to secure private loans.

Whilst this is open to a variety of sectors, green businesses will be able to apply from early next year, many of whom have already been benefiting during the pilot as the UK transitions to net zero.

Thanks to innovation loans, 70 per cent of surveyed businesses who were part of the pilot are now also offering customers greener alternatives to their existing products.

The Government has also confirmed nearly £10 million in funding for a first-of-a-kind new hydrogen project in the UK’s largest onshore windfarm near Glasgow.

£9.4 million will be invested into the Whitelee green hydrogen project to develop the UK’s largest electrolyser, a system which converts water into hydrogen gas as a way to store energy and supply local transport providers with zero-carbon fuel.

Developed by ITM Power and BOC, with ScottishPower, it has the potential to store and produce the equivalent of enough green hydrogen to fuel over 200 bus journeys travelling between Glasgow and Edinburgh each day.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.