5 January 2011
Ministers have urged councils to do more to promote the use of electric cars, and have taken away local authorities’ powers to decide where charging points can be installed.
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles this week called on councils to require new housing developments to include electric vehicle charging points – as long as the demand did not make the projects unaffordable.
Ministers also announced that charging points for electric vehicles will be able to be built into streets and car parks without planning permission, bypassing councils’ existing powers to block their installation.
Announcing the new measures, Pickles and decentralisation minister Greg Clark said they believed that, with the right help from central and local government, families would opt into a greener lifestyle.
Pickles said: ‘We know people want to buy into the eco-friendly car, but they need their politicians to catch up and bring in the infrastructure that makes it a feasible option.
‘That’s why we are urging councils to include charging points in new developments, and the government will relax the need for planning permission for charging points.’
Clark added that ‘planning rules have to catch up with car technology’. He added that the government’s changes to the planning rules would ‘at a stroke, remove the bureaucracy, allowing 2011 to be the year when electric motoring is made easy’.
The announcements come as the government’s plug-in car grant takes effect. As of the beginning of this month, motorists buying an electric car will be eligible for a grant covering 25% of the cost of the vehicle, up to a maximum of £5,000.
The scheme was first announced by the previous Labour government but was preserved by the coalition.
