The Department for Transport will provide councils with £500 million to invest in installing electric vehicle public charging points, as part of its new Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy.
The strategy aims to increase the number of public charge points in the UK from 30,000 to 300,000 by 2030.
Cllr David Renard, the LGA’s Transport Spokesperson, said: “Councils are determined to tackle climate change and drive down harmful transport-related emissions and are already supporting the transition to electric vehicles.
“This funding is a significant boost to those efforts which will help secure staffing and resources to better plan and invest in local charge point networks, in partnership with commercial operators.
“It will also help ensure that there is access where it is needed, in particular for those without access to off-street parking.
“Councils are best-placed to ensure charge points are delivered in the right places and avoid inappropriate or poor siting. All councils need to benefit and have full flexibility to maximise the impact of the funding.
“While funding is one barrier to progress, we await details as to how the Government intends to deal with other obstacles such as high costs of connection points to the electric grid, and access to expertise.”
Around 28 per cent of councils have published electric vehicle transition plans, while a further 23 per cent are in the process of devising schemes for supporting the switch to electric motoring, according to responses to Freedom of Information requests by the FairCharge campaign.
