, Member of Parliament for
Leicester East, has criticised the government for failing to
ensure a just regional distribution of electric car charging
points and argued that this will hamper the UK’s climate
commitments.
The number of publicly available chargers has not grown fast
enough to keep up with the soaring number of battery-powered
electric cars on British roads, according to the Society of Motor
Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group. Public charger
numbers rose by 82% between 2019 and 2021, but this pales in
comparison with the 600% jump in the number of electric cars
during the same period.
The disparity between the number of chargers and cars is growing
faster in the north of England than in the south, the SMMT said.
A third of the UK’s households – mainly in towns and cities – do
not have their own dedicated parking space where a private charge
point could be installed.
Leicester has just 90 publicly available charging devices, which
equates to 25 devices per 100,000 people. This is just over half
the national average, which is 42 charging devices per 100,000
people. Most shockingly, Leicester has a quarter of the electric
car chargers as London – which enjoys 102 chargers per 100,000
people. In Inner London, this rises to 147 devices per 100,000
people – or nearly six times Leicester’s capacity.
, Member of Parliament for
Leicester East, said:
“Electric vehicles are a vital step in the struggle against
climate breakdown. The government must be doing much more to make
them cheaper and easily accessible. Yet the woefully poor and
inadequate levels of electric charge points in Leicester will
hamper the UK’s existing climate commitments.
“It is deeply disappointing to see the same regional inequalities
replicated with the government’s inadequate climate policies. The
government boasts a lot about ‘levelling up’, yet the reality is
that Leicester has six times less electric vehicle charging
capacity than central London. For all their empty talk of
levelling up, the Conservatives are continuing to starve
Leicester of the investment we desperately need.
“This regional inequality must end. The government must rapidly
accelerate the roll-out of the UK’s Electric Vehicle charging
network and take action to ensure every part of the UK has access
to reliable, accessible, and user-friendly EV public charging
facilities.”
Ends
Notes To Editor:
Statistics taken from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electric-vehicle-charging-device-statistics-january-2022
