Government review puts local authorities in driving seat for charging roll-out

Its name is a bit of a mouthful, rather like a tasty slice of pizza. But just like pizza, it’s critically important! The Future of Transport Regulatory Review doesn’t sound particularly appetising but it was launched to ask some tough questions about how transport is regulated, including EV charging.

You’ll be relieved we aren’t going to go into every ingredient of this review – the outcome of which was announced by the Government recently – but you’ll be delighted to hear that it does contain one golden nugget. Let’s see if this tickles your EV taste buds!

We already knew that local authorities are the heartbeat of the EV charging roll out. Connected Kerb has been working with them for five years to successfully deliver thousands of charging points.

But the main conclusion of this review – that local authorities will be given a new legal duty to plan and deliver EV charging in their communities – officially puts them front and centre of the transition.

It comes at a time when both the charging industry and government are focused on accelerating charging deployment, even with the 2030 phase out date of new petrol and diesel vehicle sales being put back five years.

LEVI Fund Supports Roll Out But More Guidance Needed

But to really deliver on this new legal responsibility – once it’s officially created by Parliament – local authorities need the tools to do the job. Some of these tools are already in place. 

The LEVI Fund will be handing out cash from the main fund to local authorities for the first time towards the end of this year.

Complementing our own significant investment, this will lead to the emergence of more tenders and new public chargers multiplying in their thousands on Britain’s streets and car parks over the coming years.

LEVI’s Capability Fund has also enabled councils to recruit in-house EV managers to oversee their EV charging strategies, as well as run the tender and delivery processes with private sector Charge Point Operators.

And of course Connected Kerb is on hand to support councils with our turnkey solution that includes consultation, marketing support and a full maintenance service. 

But to complete the toolbox, councils also need really clear guidance from central government about what they are expected to deliver.

Government has said that in addition to creating a legal duty for local authorities to deliver charging, new powers will be created to “hold local authorities to account where insufficient progress is taken”. 

This begs the question, what does sufficient progress look like? We urgently need a shared view of what good looks like – whether that’s in relation to where charge points are located, how we engage with residents or what the technical requirements are for bay sizes.

We like to strive for clarity at Connected Kerb and hope the Government can do this with local authorities so that the goalposts don’t get changed.

You might like to see more of the debate around the  role of local authorities by tuning into a House of Lords Committee session where our CEO Chris Pateman-Jones urged the government to get stuck into the public discourse and big up the benefits of EV.

Our verdict

Connected Kerb welcomes the review and the outcomes that deliver more clarity for local authorities. But there is plenty more work to be done to give councils the assurance and confidence to accelerate their EV journey.

This is new ground for a lot of councils as well as consumers. The Government needs to lead, and make sure the bright lights of net zero don’t dazzle everyone into a state of inaction.