Govt awards £2m to Cumbria, Lancashire for EV infrastructure
The county authorities were two of 16 councils to receive funds from a £56m Department for Transport investment aimed at increasing the number of electric vehicle chargepoints in the UK.
The Department for Transport said its funds will enable the immediate delivery of up to 2,400 chargepoints in the country. The investment will also provide support for local councils to install thousands more in the future.
Cumbria County Council has received £1.4m to install 900 chargepoints. Lancashire County Council was granted £600,000 to deliver up to 200 chargepoints.
With the funding award, both counties are now part of the government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Pilot. LEVI was launched last summer with a £20m government commitment. Today’s announcement seems the amount dedicated to the pilot double, with £41m set to go towards the initiative.
Of that £41m, £22m is from the government and £17m is from private funders. The remaining £2m comes from public funds across local authorities.
The Department for Transport has also launched an £8m LEVI Capability Fund to help local authorities work with operators to build more chargepoints.
The remaining £7m from today’s announcement will go towards the government’s On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme, which has already delivered 3,000 chargepoints and has another 10,000 in the pipeline.
“The government is giving local authorities across England additional help today to energise their chargepoint roll-out plans,” said Jesse Norman, technology and decarbonisation transport minister.
“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”.
In addition to Cumbria and Lancashire, other areas to receive LEVI funding include Buckinghamshire, Hackney, Harborough, Hounslow, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Rotherham, Sunderland, Waltham Forest, Warwickshire, West Midlands, West Sussex, West Yorkshire, and York.
