Credit Management October 2022

OPINION
OPINION
MONEY TALKS
A Guide to the UK Government’s Funding of EV Charging
and a chance to imagine a brave new world.
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM
❝
“Those responsible for delivering charging infrastructure need to have
quite a detailed level of knowledge simply to know the right people – and the
right questions – to ask to arrive at the solution they need.”
THE transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs)
is in full swing and will ultimately support
the UK in achieving its agreed climate change
targets. The arguments are already well-rehearsed
and the benefits clear. Not only will
it help improve air quality in the country’s
towns and cities, but it will also support economic growth.
With the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans to
cease by 2030, and with all new cars and vans being fully
zero emission ‘at the tailpipe’ from 2035, the missing part
of the jigsaw is the infrastructure that will support the
‘revolution’ the Government hopes to bring about.
In its spending review of 2020, The Johnson Government
committed an additional £620 million to support the
transition to EVs by way of targeted grants with a particular
emphasis on local on-street residential chargepoints and
targeted plug-in vehicle grants. It brings the total committed
to vehicle grants and infrastructure to £2.5 billion.
The challenge, it seems, is therefore not the money, nor
the appetite among the country’s leaders to bring about
significant change. The challenge rests more in those
responsible for delivering that change, which aside from the
private sector falls predominantly among local authorities.
ROLE OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES
The EV Infrastructure strategy is setting clear expectations
for major stakeholders, making local authorities responsible
for planning and implementation. It is local authorities who
understand the transport needs of their local population
and are therefore best placed to make the right decisions
on what is needed and where for local people and local
businesses.
So what are the funding schemes available to those
local authorities seeking to embrace the Government’s
revolutionary mindset? How can they be accessed? And
what are the qualifying criteria? In very simple terms, the
available funding is broken down into four convenient
schemes:
• On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme
• Workplace Charging Scheme
• EV chargepoint grants for homes
• Local EV Infrastructure Fund
ON-STREET SCHEME
Residents who have no access to private, off-street parking
are immediately challenged in their adoption of a new
Electric Vehicle. It is for this reason that the Government
has created the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme
(ORCS), a scheme that provides funding towards the capital
costs of installing public charging infrastructure for
residents without private parking. Available to all UK local
authorities it supports installations both on-street and in
local authority-owned residential car parks. In the financial
year 2022 to 2023, £20 million is being made available
through ORCS.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / October 2022 / PAGE 10
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / October 2022 / PAGE 11
continues on page 12 >