North East England

An £7.8m fund to roll-out electric vehicle charging points across North East England has today been announced by Regional Development Agency One North East and the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).

A total of 1,300 charging points will now be installed across the region over the next three years on streets, in car parks, at residential and commercial locations and at retail and leisure facilities, after OLEV confirmed funding of £2,978,000 for the regional project through its Plugged-In Places programme.

The Government has named the UK’s two other Plugged-In Places as London and Milton Keynes, which will join the North East as trailblazers for this ultra low carbon technology. The regional bid, coordinated by One North East, has been financially supported by more than 40 regional partners from the public and private sector, who have in total pledged more than £1m for charging points to be installed at their premises.

"A total of 1,300 charging points will now be installed across the region over the next three years."

These forward-thinking organisations stretch across the region from Berwick to Redcar and from South Tyneside to the Wylam, and range from garden centres and hotels to major housebuilders and supermarkets, and all 12 of the North East’s local authorities.

Support from the business community has been generated with the help of CBI North East and the North East Chamber of Commerce, both of whom have been strong advocates of the region’s ambitions to become a global leader in the development of low carbon vehicles.

The regional response to the Plugged-In Places initiative has been so enthusiastic that One North East is to leave open the fund which offers regional companies and organisations match-funding for charging points - effectively enabling them to install charging points at their premises for half the standard price (around £2,500 instead of around £5,000).