West Sussex to get £1.8m from Government to increase electric vehicle chargepoints

The announcement by Transport Minister Jesse Norman will install up to a further 100 chargepoints in the short term, while working to supporting West Sussex to deliver many more in the long term.

The DfT said the funding will expand the current Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Pilot, boost the existing On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) and help councils secure dedicated resource to develop in-house expertise and capability to coordinate chargepoint plans and work with private operators.

Jesse Norman, technology and decarbonisation transport minister, said: "The Government is giving local authorities across England additional help today to energise their chargepoint roll-out plans.

“Today’s commitment will lead to thousands of new chargers being installed, and plans for tens of thousands extra in due course, so that more people than ever can make the transition to using EVs.”

The DfT said today’s announcement is part of a total £56 million in government and industry funding to increase electric vehicle chargepoints across the country.

Part of this includes the £8 million LEVI Capability Fund which will equip local authorities with the skills and ambition to scale up their plans when it comes to their charging strategy, it said.

The DfT said today also sees the Government bringing forward a further £7 million funding for the existing On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme, bringing the total funding this year to £37 million. 3,000 chargepoints have already been installed under ORCS with a further 10,000 in the pipeline.

Several additional funding schemes are already open and available to help install chargepoints for electric vehicles with government support, including the Workplace Charging Scheme, Landlord grant and the Private/Rental grant.

The Government said it has already spent more than £2 billion to support the move to zero emission vehicles, helping drive forward the decarbonisation of the UK’s entire transport system.