Real Estate Blog: Charging ahead – We’re on the Road to Zero

 

Regular readers of our blog may recall our coverage of the Government’s Road to Zero strategy and our update on the electric vehicle (EV) charging consultation, which sought views on the proposed requirement to install EV charge points in new and existing buildings in England, and which closed on 7 October 2019.

The Government has now published its response to that consultation, and intends to lay new regulations before Parliament this year. These regulations will introduce requirements that:

• New individual homes with on-site parking are to have an EV charge point

• Residential buildings undergoing major renovation that will have more than 10 on-site parking spaces (after the renovation works) are to have at least one EV charge point for each dwelling with associated parking and cable routes in all spaces without charge points (to allow retrofitting of charge points at a later date)

• New non-residential buildings with more than 10 on-site parking spaces are to have at least one charge point and cable routes for one in five spaces

• Non-residential buildings undergoing major renovation that will have more than 10 on-site parking spaces after the works are to have at least one charge point and cable routes for one in five spaces

The Government will not introduce the proposal for one charge point in all existing non-residential buildings with more than 20 parking spaces, acknowledging that a more tailored approach is needed. It’s anticipated that the new requirements, which will be introduced into the existing building regulations regime, will deliver an additional 145,000 charge points and we will cover the detail of the regulations when they are laid before Parliament. In the meantime, you can read the Consultation Response here and can contact a member of our Low Emission Vehicles Team for further advice on the implications of the proposals.