Mayor hails £15.8m electric vehicle charger boost – but North East still behind rest of England

Bosses at the North East Combined Authority (NECA) announced this week that £15.8 million of government funding had been signed off to boost EV charging infrastructure.

They said that hundreds of new charge points will be rolled out over the next three years across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and County Durham, with more than 1,000 expected by 2030.

The new devices will be targeted at residential areas without off-street parking and communities not covered by commercial EV charging stations, in order to help “plug gaps” in the region’s network.

However, the North East still has fewer publicly accessible EV chargers than any region in England.

According to latest figures from EV charging point locator Zapmap, there are just 2,311 in the North East – only 511 are rapid or ultra-rapid chargers.

The geographical area with the most EV charging points is Greater London with 22,706, followed by the South East with 9,627 and West Midlands with 6,550.

A regional strategy published in 2023 predicted that rising demand for electric vehicles as petrol and diesel models are phased out could mean that as many as 28,000 chargers would be needed here over the following 15 years.

If correct, that would leave a substantial gap to current levels – even accounting for the £15.8 million boost from the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) funding, which was announced under the previous Conservative government and has now been given final approval by the Department for Transport to be handed over to NECA.

Labour mayor Kim McGuinness said she hoped that more people will feel confident enough in the North East’s charging network to make the switch to an EV.

She added: “I am delighted that we have secured £15.8 million to grow our electric vehicle charging network. This funding will deliver an additional 1,000 new charging points right across the region by 2030 which is really exciting.

“As a driver of an electric vehicle, I know how challenging it can be to find a convenient place to charge. Of course, I want to encourage more people to consider making the switch to electric, but I know following many conversations with local people that to do this, we need to ensure the infrastructure is there so residents can make any change with confidence. I hope these new residential based points will be helpful for our communities and will encourage more people to consider an electric vehicle in the future.”

NECA told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the predicted need of 28,000 charging points was “based on meeting the previous UK government’s projected net zero pathway”, but did not provide an updated target figure.

Roads minister Lilian Greenwood said: “We saw great growth in the North East chargepoint network in the last quarter and this funding will keep the momentum going, making it easier to make a supported switch to EVs, supporting jobs and helping the UK become a clean energy superpower as part of Plan for Change.”