It has been announced this week that from next year, new homes and buildings in England as well as those undergoing major renovation will be required by law to install electric vehicle charging points. The government are claiming that this will see up to 145,000 charging points being installed each year. With the ban on new petrol and diesel car sales from 2030 legislation is undoubtedly needed in this area.

The new regulations will require:

• New homes with on-site parking to have an EV charge point
• Residential buildings undergoing major renovation that will have over ten on-site parking spaces after renovation to have at least one charge point for each dwelling with associated parking and cable routes in all spaces without charge points
• New non-residential buildings with over ten on-site parking spaces to have at least one charge point and cable routes for one in five spaces.
• Non-residential buildings undergoing a major renovation that will have over ten on-site parking spaces after renovation to have at least one charge point and cable routes for one in five spaces.

The government have decided not to introduce the proposal for one charge point to be required in all existing non-residential properties with more than 20 parking spaces.

We await to see the extent of any exemptions for example with renovations on listed buildings or whether there are any cost considerations. However, the government is clearly signalling a serious push for the use of electric vehicles and so any exemptions from the legislation may be minimal.

While there remain a number of hurdles to overcome before petrol and diesel vehicles can be replaced entirely, these new regulations are undoubtedly a step forward towards #netzero.