Progress towards a switch to electric vehicles (EVs) is stalling with one in three councils in Britain failing to develop plans for new public chargepoints, new research suggests.
The study also points towards a growing North/South divide in EV infrastructure and fears that poorer areas are missing out.
Local authorities are supposed to be providing chargers for millions of homes without off-street parking. But the research indicates that many of them are making little progress, drawing criticism from the car industry and environmental groups.
Things appear to be worst in the North of England, where 42 per cent of councils do not have formal EV infrastructure plans, compared to 28 per cent in the south, according to a poll of councillors.
Scotland and Wales seem to be doing better, at 27 and 20 per cent respectively.
Throughout Britain only 18 per cent of councils employ a team dedicated to delivering EV infrastructure, with most relying on part-time staff, according to the survey.
The survey was carried out by the market research agency Coleman Parkes in October. It spoke to councillors who focus on EVs at 100 town halls, representing roughly a quarter of local authorities in Great Britain and covering both urban and rural areas.
The work was commissioned by the EV chargepoint company Believ for its annual report on how progress is “stalling”.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is concerned by the findings, calling for a “national plan, locally delivered, and backed by binding targets” to rescue the situation.
The lobby group’s chief executive, Mike Hawes, told i: “Greater public chargepoint provision is essential for delivering an electric transition that is faster and fairer for all.”
There are fears that people living in high-rise flats and older housing are being left behind. One councillor who took part in the anonymous survey said: “We have a lot of old terraces so people can’t charge their EV at home – there is no infrastructure there.”
Another councillor said: “People will struggle to buy an EVs. The people in this area couldn’t afford one. There’s a lot of deprivation.” But if this is used as justification to not install chargers in some areas, there are fears it could create a vicious circle.
Guy Bartlett, chief executive of Believ, said he is concerned that so many councils are “a long way” from installing chargepoints, when they haven’t decided how and where to do so.
“Plans can take more than six months to create and put in place,” he told i. “There is no doubt that they need more support, more resources and more people.”
He added: “We regularly hear from local councils deeply frustrated by the time taken to access government funding – especially when several months can pass only to find their request for funding has been declined.”
Mr Bartlett is worried that public funds are being “disproportionately focused on more affluent areas”. He argued it is “essential that industry and government work together” to close the growing North-South divide.
“Whilst last year there were 36 EVs for every standard chargepoint, in the North-West that number has now reached 85,” he pointed out.
The Government says that its first local charging projects were approved last month, with more on the way. Almost 100 dedicated EV officers have been recruited to support chargepoint procurement, and an infrastructure training course for council officers is opening this month.
Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network which supports net-zero goals, said the Government had helped the number of electric cars in the UK grow from less than 100,000 in 2019 to more than 1 million now – but the number of chargepoints must “keep pace”.
“We need to go further and faster,” he told i. “Many councils have already taken strong action, but, as these figures show, we need to turbocharge these efforts and make it simpler to build chargepoints.
“For example, councils should adopt a standard approach to tendering for chargepoint installation across the UK. This will make it faster for private sector to deliver charge points for local authorities, rather than requiring them to take a different approach for each local authority.
The group has been calling for an end to the so-called “pavement tax” – with electricity at public chargepoints incurring VAT of 20 per cent, compared to just 5 per cent for people who can power up their car batteries at home.
Councillor Darren Rodwell, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, told i: “Several factors influence the installation of on-street chargers, such as the amount of off-street parking space, suitability of land, electric-vehicles ownership levels, private-sector provision and competing priorities.”
Councils would like to do more but “have limited resources”, he said, calling for local authorities to “be given long-term funding certainty and flexibility”.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “We’re already supporting councils across the country to roll out tens of thousands of additional EV chargers through our £381m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (Levi) fund.
“Just last week, we announced the Local Transport Fund which will empower local councils across the North and Midlands to improve local transport in their area, including increasing the number of EV chargepoints, made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.
“Since January last year we have seen a 45 per cent increase in public chargepoints across the country, putting us on track to install 300,000 by 2030.”
The total number of EV chargepoints in the UK stood at just over 55,000 according to ZapMap, an app which shares their locations for drivers.
The Government’s Future of Transport review in October proposed a statutory requirement for local authorities to plan for and deliver charging infrastructure.
Some in the industry have been suspicious that this will be dropped, but officials insist it will before MPs when parliamentary time allows.
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