£100m boost for electric car charging in London and South-East

£36m to give London enough points for charging to be as easy as filling up

- David Bond and Nicholas Cecil

GRANT SHAPPS unveiled a £100 million plan today to boost London and the South-East’s electric car charging network.

The details of the new funding allocations for English regions came as the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary was setting out a sweeping package of measures aimed at slashing energy bills and making households greener.

But Labour insisted the announcements were a “weak and feeble groundhog day” of “re-heated policy”. In a bid to supercharge the country’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the Government announced a total of almost £400 million for local authorities to deliver more charging points.

This included nearly £36 million in capital funding for London boroughs and £53 million for councils in the South-East as well as “capability” funding of nearly £10 million to administer the new charging points.

Officials said the money will be used to encourage private investment in new charge points in each local authority. London Councils and Transport for London will also be able to use capability funding to support co-ordination between boroughs.

Although London leads the way in the UK, with a third of all Electric Vehicle (EV) charging points located in the capital, campaign groups have been calling for ministers and local authorities to step up provision to turbo charge the transition from petrol and diesel vehicles.