Electric vehicle charge point requirements in new development

Electric vehicle charge point provision in new development is set by Approved Document S of the Building Regulations, not by planning policy, and it has applied to new buildings in England since 2022. The headline requirement for new dwellings is straightforward: a dwelling with associated parking gets a charge point, and where that is not required, cable routes have to be installed instead. Local plan policy can go further on matters within its own scope, but it cannot rewrite the Building Regulations requirement.

For a self-builder, the practical consequence sits in the electrical design rather than in the planning application. The charge point itself is a small cost. The incoming supply capacity, the consumer unit and the cable route from it to the parking space are where the money and the coordination go.

The building regulations requirement and its scope

Approved Document S covers new dwellings, dwellings created by material change of use, residential buildings undergoing major renovation, and new and renovated non-residential buildings. The requirement attaches to the building work, so it applies whether or not the planning permission mentions charging.

The structure of the requirement for dwellings follows the parking arrangement.

There are exemptions, and they matter on constrained sites. Where the cost of the connection to the electricity supply exceeds a stated cap, the requirement is reduced, and there are provisions covering buildings in conservation areas and listed buildings where the works would unacceptably alter their character. Read the current Approved Document rather than relying on a summary, because the caps and the exemptions have been revised.

Where planning policy adds to it

Planning cannot duplicate the Building Regulations, and national guidance discourages conditions that do. What planning policy legitimately controls is the parking layout itself: how many spaces, where they are, whether they are allocated or unallocated, and how visitor and accessible parking is arranged.

That distinction produces a workable division. The number and location of spaces, the provision for visitors, and the physical arrangement of charging infrastructure in a communal car park are planning matters. The electrical specification of the charge point is not.

Some local plans and parking standards documents do set charging ratios, particularly in London and in authorities with adopted low emission policies. Where they do, and the policy is adopted, it is a material consideration. Check whether the policy predates the Building Regulations requirement, because several older policies ask for less than the Approved Document now demands and applicants sometimes design to the weaker figure by mistake.

Dwellings with and without associated parking

An associated parking space is one within the boundary of the dwelling or allocated to it. Houses with a drive and flats with an allocated bay are straightforward.

The interesting cases are the ones without. A terrace of houses fronting the highway with no off-street parking attracts no charge point requirement, because there is no space to put one on. That is a real outcome and it is the main reason charging provision in dense terraced streets depends on on-street infrastructure supplied by the local authority rather than on new development.

Where a scheme has unallocated parking in a shared court, the arrangement matters more than the arithmetic. Spaces that are not tied to a dwelling need a strategy: charge points on a subset of bays with cable routes to the rest is the usual answer, with a management arrangement so residents can share them.

Communal and visitor parking provision

Communal car parks raise the question the Approved Document is least able to answer on its own, which is how the provision is managed.

Set out in the Transport Statement or the design and access statement who owns the charge points, who pays for the electricity, how a resident books or accesses one, and who maintains them. A management company arrangement is the usual answer, and councils increasingly ask for it because they have seen schemes where charge points were installed and never energised.

Visitor parking is generally out of scope for the dwelling requirement, which is why visitor charging usually comes from planning policy rather than from Approved Document S. Where a council seeks it, it is reasonable to ask which policy requires it and what the evidence is, and to check that the requirement is not simply duplicating the building regulations position.

Accessible bays need particular attention, because a charge point positioned without regard to the transfer zone makes the bay unusable. Coordinate the charging layout with the accessible parking design rather than adding it afterwards, as accessible and motorcycle parking in a new scheme sets out.

Cable routes and future proofing

A cable route is a continuous duct or containment from the consumer unit or distribution board to the parking space, sized and terminated so that a charge point can be installed later without excavation.

Three details determine whether it is any use in practice.

• Termination. A duct ending under a block-paved drive with no draw string and no marked position is worthless. Terminate at a labelled box above ground.
• Capacity. Size the duct for the cable that will be pulled and for its bend radius, rather than for the cable that fits today.
• Record. Mark the route on the as-built drawings and include it in the homeowner information pack, because the next owner will not find it otherwise.

On a phased site, install the ducting across the whole site during the first phase's groundworks. Retrofitting containment under a completed street costs several times what it costs in an open trench.

Electrical capacity and the connection offer

This is the item that derails programmes. Charge points add load, and on a scheme of any size the aggregate demand changes the connection required from the distribution network operator.

Apply for the connection offer early, because quotations and reinforcement works run to months and sometimes longer where a substation is needed. Diversity assumptions matter: a network operator will apply a diversity factor to domestic charging rather than assuming every charge point draws full load at once, and the assumed factor affects the capacity offered and the cost.

Load management is the usual way to reduce the reinforcement requirement. A system that limits total draw across a communal car park lets more charge points be installed on a smaller supply, at the cost of slower charging at peak times. Where that approach is proposed, say so in the submission, because a council that expects unrestricted charging and finds a managed system afterwards will ask questions.

Conditions and how they are discharged

Expect the council to condition the parking layout, the location of charge points and any management arrangement, rather than the electrical specification. A condition requiring "electric vehicle charging in accordance with Approved Document S" is duplication and can reasonably be resisted.

Workable conditions look like this. Details of the charging infrastructure layout to be approved before the relevant part of the development is occupied. A management plan for communal charge points. And a requirement that the approved provision is in place before first occupation and retained thereafter.

Discharge with a drawing rather than a description. A layout plan showing bay numbers, charge point positions, cable routes and the distribution board location answers the condition in one document, and it doubles as the record the residents will need later. Where the scheme also needs travel planning measures, keep the charging provision consistent with what the Travel Plan commits to.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

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