Growth of Electric Vehicle infrastructure on Executive agenda

05 October 2023

Next week’s meeting of North Northamptonshire Council’s Executive will receive a report on government funding to boost the number of electric vehicle charging points across the local area.

NNC has been identified as eligible for nearly £3m of funding from government and must now submit a business case on or before the end of November on how the funding would be spent.

It is estimated that the number of charging points across the country will need to increase from 37,000 to 720,000 by 2030 and in March 2023, the government announced the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure fund, which is designed to improve the accessibility of charging points locally. The funding allocated to NNC is primarily to provide solutions for residents across North Northants without off-street parking.

NNC has been identified as eligible for funding in round 1 from government due to its ability to demonstrate commitment, capability and capacity to deliver an investment programme for North Northants.

It is great news that North Northants has been identified in round 1 of this funding from central government and, if Executive approve, we must now  look to create a robust business case which demonstrates a strong rationale for charge point locations and the route we would take to improve infrastructure across the local area.

With the number of electric vehicle users growing, it is important that we look to the future and how the infrastructure needs to adapt to keep up with demand. We have already been considering this with the development of our electric vehicle infrastructure strategy and the funding received from Government would help facilitate the strategy.Cllr Matt Binley, the council’s Executive Member for Highways, Travel and Assets

Since we declared a climate and environment emergency in 2021, we have been working to develop our policies and identifying ways we can help residents. With the funding allocated from Government, we are now well positioned to extend the local electric charging network.

I look forward to discussing this report and how we move forward with growing our electric vehicle infrastructure at next week’s meeting.Cllr Jason Smithers, Leader of the Council

The Executive report will follow on from a consultation (which closes on 11 October) on NNC’s draft electric vehicle infrastructure strategy, with comments taken on board before the final version is published.

North Northamptonshire Council’s Executive will meet on Thursday 12 October at 10am at the Corby Cube. The meeting will be live streamed on YouTube and the papers are available online.