Part S charge points or a planning condition

Part S charge points vs planning condition is a question about which regime controls what, and the short answer is that Part S of the Building Regulations now does most of the work for new dwellings. Approved Document S requires an electric vehicle charge point for each new dwelling with associated parking, and cable routes where a charge point is not provided. A planning condition that repeats that requirement is duplication, and national guidance says conditions should not duplicate other statutory controls.

Which leaves a narrower but real role for planning: the cases Part S does not reach, and the matters Part S does not control.

What Part S requires and for which buildings

Approved Document S came into effect in June 2022 and supports Part S of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 2010. The requirements split by building type and by whether the work is new build or major renovation.

Associated parking is the concept that does most of the work. A space allocated to a dwelling, or within the curtilage of it, is associated parking. An unallocated communal car park is treated differently, and this is where disputes arise.

The cost exemption and how it is evidenced

Where the cost of providing the connection exceeds the cost cap in Approved Document S, currently set at £3,600 per charge point excluding VAT, the requirement is limited. The developer provides as many charge points as can be installed within that cap and cable routes to the remainder.

The exemption is not self-certifying in practice. Building control will want the evidence, which means a written quotation or connection offer from the distribution network operator showing the cost of the reinforcement or the new supply, broken down so that the per charge point figure can be checked. A general statement that the connection is expensive will not carry it.

Two points worth knowing. The cap applies to the connection cost, not to the whole installation. And a quotation obtained early in a long project may no longer reflect the position at the time the work is done, so keep it current.

A Utilities Assessment setting out the available capacity, the reinforcement required and the network operator's response is the document that makes this straightforward at both planning and building control stage.

What a planning condition can add

Four things, all of which sit outside Part S.

Spaces Part S does not catch. A conversion creating dwellings where no building work triggers Part S, a development with no parking at application stage that later gains it, or parking provided outside the curtilage on land not subject to the building work.

Design and siting. Part S does not control where a charge point is, how it looks, whether a column obstructs a footway, or whether a cable trails across a pavement. Those are planning matters and a condition requiring a layout drawing is legitimate.

Future-proofing beyond Part S. The London Plan requires a higher standard than the national one, with at least 20 per cent of spaces having active charging provision and the remainder passive. Where a local plan policy sets a higher standard, a condition securing it is not duplication because it is securing something Part S does not require.

Management. Access arrangements for communal charge points, and the terms on which residents use them, can be secured through a management plan condition or a planning obligation.

Duplication and why it is resisted

National guidance on the use of planning conditions sets six tests, and a condition has to be necessary. A condition requiring what another regime already requires is not necessary, and officers who understand Part S will remove it if you ask.

The practical argument to make, in a Transport Statement or in correspondence, runs like this. State the Part S requirement that applies to the scheme as designed. Confirm the number of charge points and cable routes that follow. Then identify anything the local policy requires over and above that, and offer a condition covering only that increment.

This is a more productive line than resisting the condition outright, and it tends to work.

Communal parking and allocated spaces

The hard cases are flats with a shared car park.

Where spaces are allocated to individual dwellings, each allocated space is associated parking and attracts the per dwelling requirement. Where the car park is unallocated, the position depends on how the development is designed and how building control reads it, and practice varies.

The design consequences are real. Charge points in a communal car park need a metering and billing arrangement, a management regime, and often a larger incoming supply than the dwellings themselves justify. Deal with it at the outset: an electrical capacity statement, a layout showing the charge point positions and the cable route zones, and a short note on how residents will access and pay for charging.

Load management is the usual answer to the capacity problem. A dynamic load management system allows more charge points on a given supply by sharing capacity, and it is accepted by distribution network operators. Say so in the application rather than letting the officer assume a connection upgrade is needed.

Conversions and material changes of use

Part S attaches to building work and to major renovation, so a change of use that involves little physical work can fall outside it altogether.

An office to residential conversion under Class MA with existing parking, where no work is done to the car park or the electrical installation, is the clearest example. Part S may not bite, the parking already exists, and the only control available is a planning condition. This is where a condition is not duplication, and resisting it on duplication grounds will not succeed.

So the test to apply is simple. Identify whether building work or major renovation is happening to the relevant part. If it is, Part S governs and a condition is likely to be unnecessary. If it is not, planning is the only lever and a proportionate condition should be expected.

Showing provision on the drawings

Put it on one drawing and reference it everywhere else.

Mark each parking space with a reference, state which spaces have active charge points and which have cable routes, show the position of the distribution board or substation, and mark the cable route zones. Add a schedule listing spaces, dwellings and provision against the applicable standard. Where the cost cap is relied on, note it and cross-refer to the network operator correspondence.

Where a Travel Plan is required, the charge point provision belongs in it as a measure with a monitoring commitment, and the note on travel plan or transport statement sets out which document carries which obligation.

An illustrative scheme

A new build block of 24 flats with 14 spaces in an undercroft, all allocated. Part S requires a charge point for each dwelling with associated parking, so 14 charge points, and cable routes are not needed for dwellings without a space. The borough policy requires 20 per cent active and 80 per cent passive across all spaces, which the Part S provision exceeds for the allocated spaces.

The network operator quotes a reinforcement cost that works out below the cap per charge point, so the exemption does not apply. Dynamic load management is proposed to keep the incoming supply at the originally designed capacity. The condition sought by the case officer duplicating Part S is withdrawn, and a condition securing the layout drawing and the load management detail is agreed instead. Figures here are illustrative.

One honest uncertainty: how building control bodies treat unallocated communal parking is not uniform, and a scheme designed on one reading can meet a different one on site.

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