The Prime Minister has been warned a policy introduced under his predecessor “shifts bigger costs onto UK residents”.
The Prime Minister has been alerted to a policy introduced by Labour earlier this year (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham has been urged to reconsider a £500 grant scheme introduced under his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer. The measures, introduced in April, mean renters, flat owners, businesses and homeowners without driveways can save £500 when installing an electric vehicle (EV) chargepoint.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said at the time that the £500 limit will typically cover nearly half the cost of having an EV charger installed, with the grants only lasting until April 2027. But Denis Watling, managing director at ChargeGuru UK, said the change had “stirred up a lot of conversations in the industry”, including its risk of “significantly slowing down EV adoption for millions of residents”.
Mr Watling highlighted the scheme’s replacement of a previous Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) policy which provided up to £850 per parking bay for EV charging points, depending on commercial and residential infrastructure.
The new policy offers £500 grants for EV charging point installation (Image: Getty)
“Under the new scheme, that support drops to £500 and is only available when a charge point is actually installed,” he said.
“This shift removes all funding to support the installation of critical pre-infrastructure, including the cabling, distribution and safety systems that make the installation of charge points financially and operationally viable for residents in apartment blocks.”
He warned Mr Burnham that the current policy “shifts the bigger costs onto the building and/or its residents”, adding that it could exacerbate “issues relating to fire safety, billing, maintenance and long-term consistency” by not adopting a “coordinated, building-wide solution”.
Speaking earlier this year, former decarbonisation minister Keir Mather said the Government was “taking action to make EV ownership the affordable choice for everyone – not just those with driveways”.
He added: “Bigger grants mean families, flat owners, renters and small businesses can now install a charger for almost half the usual cost, with home charging costing as little as 2p a mile.
“Combined with our Electric Car Grant which has saved over 55,000 drivers thousands off the price of a new EV while boosting sales for carmakers, and record funding for our national public charging network, we’re backing the EV revolution for drivers, businesses and industry.”