Five Midlands Councils awarded £17.6m funding to get EV chargers on our streets

Published: 18 March 2024

Five Midlands Councils, in collaboration with Midlands Connect, have come together to successfully bid for £17.6m of Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund to get more EV charge points onto our streets.

Midlands second Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Consortium, alongside Sub-national Transport Body Midlands Connect, have successfully bid for £17.6m of Government funding together, to help the region not only to accelerate the number of EV charge points on our streets as well levelling up our regions EV ambitions across rural and urban areas.

The cash has come from the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund, in which each local authority has been allocated an individual amount from that pot and additional private investment from chargepoint operators will enable us to achieve our chargepoint socket aspirations.

The £17.6m funding will equate to approximately 8,000 new charge sockets across the consortium area and is also likely to support approximately 11,138 jobs in the whole electric vehicle charging supply chain.

The second Midlands EV infrastructure Consortium is led by Nottinghamshire County Council and is in partnership with Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Nottingham City Council, Staffordshire County Council and Midlands Connect.

Analysis by Midlands Connect found the Midlands needs over 58,000 new public EV charging points by the end of 2030 to meet the needs of the growing EV market, with over 2m EVs expected on our region’s roads by the end of the decade. It’s hoped this latest good news around the Government funding will spur on more region-wide installation of charging points.

Maria Machancoses, CEO of Midlands Connect, said:

It’s great to see Government supporting our collaborative approach to delivering EV and today’s announcement will lead to thousands of new chargers being installed, transforming how we travel around our region and beyond.

We are helping councils working together to charge ahead and provide this vital infrastructure for their communities.

The collaboration draws on their collective knowledge and expertise to deliver on street charging, making it even easier for those without driveways to make the switch to cleaner travel.

We hope in the coming weeks the rest of our consortiums will also receive investment so we can continue to supercharge the Midlands and lead the way in EV infrastructure.

Councillor Carmel Swan, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Transport and Sustainability at Derby City Council said:

In Derby, we’re working hard to grow the range of transport choices available to our citizens. We know that many of Derby’s citizens are already planning to make the switch to electric vehicles over the next few years and we hope to make this as easy as possible for them by enhancing the electric vehicle charging facilities across the city.

I’m really pleased that we’ve been selected by Government to receive this funding, which will not only help us to increase EV charging in the city but achieve our goal to become net zero by 2035.

Nottingham City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Highways, Transport and Planning, Councillor Angela Kandola said:

We welcome the news that there will be more funding for charge points across the region. We want to support people to make more sustainable transport choices and giving people more opportunity to charge electric vehicles is a step in the right direction.

Our work with Midlands Connect and other local authorities will see the introduction of more publicly accessible charge points in local neighbourhoods in the coming years.

Councillor Neil Clarke MBE, Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, said:

This is great news for Nottinghamshire and for the wider region.

We know that residents will be more likely to make the switch to electric vehicles if there's a visible and sustainable network of charging points in place.

With funding now secured, we can drive ahead with our ambitious plans to develop a well-connected public charge point network, powered by renewable energy, that will inspire and reassure motorists to go electric and make our county greener for future generations to enjoy.

Councillor Carolyn Renwick, Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Environment, said:

This is excellent news and much-welcomed funding to boost our efforts to meet the projected demand for EV charging across the region.

We’re committed to providing convenient, comprehensive, and cost-effective charging solutions for road users in Derbyshire and this funding will help us to further progress several projects in this area – including solutions for those without off street parking and exploring opportunities to develop Rapid and Ultra rapid charging hubs, through private sector partnerships, to keep commercial fleet operational.

David Williams, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport at Staffordshire County Council said:

It’s great news that our funding allocation to support the implementation of Staffordshire’s electric vehicle charging network has now been confirmed.

We can now progress with implementing our EV strategy, which has identified where the most appropriate places for charging points could be and how we will work with our consortium partners and the private sector to facilitate successful delivery. We will also work with businesses to encourage workplace charging and residents to support off-street charging, in addition to people and organisations making planning applications.

We are awaiting the outcomes of consortiums led by Lincolnshire County Council and Worcestershire County Council, with partners from Herefordshire County Council, Leicestershire County Council, Rutland County Council, Shropshire Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Telford and Wrekin Council and Warwickshire County Council.

Environment, Transport