UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has revealed a package of new measures to accelerate the UK’s clean energy transition. The measures include steps to encourage deployment of solar energy and heat pumps, as well as “streamlining outdated rules to unblock the grid and speed up [deployment of] clean, homegrown power…cutting delays for essential grid upgrades.”
Speeding up the grid modernization process is a much-needed reform that will benefit the EV industry, but the measure that EVangelists are really excited about is a commitment to make it easier for drivers without driveways to gain access to EV charging at home.
“This summer, the government will legislate to introduce permitted development rights to expand EV charging provision, allowing for cross-pavement charging solutions and associated charging points,” the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero announced. “We will also shortly launch a consultation on changes to building regulations and wider plans to improve the ability to charge. This will look to increase EV charging provision in new buildings and those undergoing major renovations, as well as give renters and leaseholders greater access to charging by making it easier to request and install charge points.”
This news was especially welcome to UK charging providers that specialize in on-street charging.
“Today’s commitment to make charging easier for renters and flat-dwellers [points to] a future where nobody is left behind in the switch to electric simply because of where they live,” said John Lewis, CEO of lamppost charging maker char.gy. “Lamppost charging has always been about meeting drivers where they are, using infrastructure that’s already on every street in the country.”
Kerbo Charge makes a clever low-tech solution: a metal channel that can be installed across a pavement (what we Yanks call a sidewalk), allowing city-dwellers to run a charging cable to their EVs with no trip hazard. The company’s CEO Michael Goulden said: “We’ve long called for the government to cut through the red tape that has been holding back cross-pavement charging, and today’s commitment to introduce permitted development rights this summer is exactly the kind of decisive action needed. This opens the door to genuinely affordable EV ownership for the millions of drivers who’ve been locked out simply because they don’t have a driveway.”
March 2026 was a record month for EV registrations in the UK—battery electric vehicles accounted for 22.7% of all new car registrations, an increase of 22.6% year-on-year.
Sources: Gov.uk, Kerbo Charge, char.gy
