Vauxhall and Cenex published research on 4 September 2025 showing that 22.9% of UK households are now within a four-minute walk of a near home charger, up from 19.6% in 20241. The same announcement reported that over 12,500 streets across the UK have been registered as needing on-street charging through Vauxhall's Electric Streets of Britain campaign since it first launched in August 20231.
The 3.3 percentage point rise is equivalent to 300,000 more households having access to a charge point than in August 2024, with infrastructure supply estimated to be one and a half years ahead of demand1. The research also found that the rate of installation has not kept pace in the past year: only two-thirds of the additional infrastructure needed to keep up with electric vehicles was deployed in the past 12 months, and around 110,000 more near home chargepoints are needed in the right places to meet projected electric vehicle demand by 20301. England's LEVI Fund and Scotland's Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund estimate at least 106,000 chargers will be deployed between them1.
Coverage gains were uneven. The Isles of Scilly rose from 0% coverage in August 2024 to 65.9%, Redbridge by 39.1 points to 60.7% and Wrexham by 26.1 points to 28.2%1. Twenty-nine local authorities already have enough charge points for their anticipated 2030 demand, representing 8% of Great Britain, while 243 councils have low coverage of accessible chargers relative to the number of electric vehicles in the area1. Rural areas, especially in Wales, Scotland and the East, lag behind on motorway charging access1.
| Local authority | Region | August 2024 (%) | August 2025 (%) | Change (points) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isles of Scilly | South & East | 0.0 | 65.9 | 65.9 |
| Redbridge | London | 21.6 | 60.7 | 39.1 |
| Middlesbrough | North & Yorks | 6.9 | 35.9 | 29.0 |
| Wrexham | Wales | 2.1 | 28.2 | 26.1 |
| Newham | London | 44.3 | 68.9 | 24.7 |
Separate figures from Zapmap cited in the announcement show public chargepoints across UK roads rose from 53,865 at the end of 2023 to over 84,000, a rise of more than 50%, though 30% of these are in London1. Freedom of Information research issued to 414 councils between May and July 2025 found the share with a dedicated policy officer for EV charging rose from 31% in 2023 to 51% in 2025, and 44% said they had installed at least one on-street charger by August 2025, against 31% in 20231.
"While the ongoing rise in councils who have policy officers dedicated to overseeing charging is encouraging, the 12,500 registrations we have received to Electric Streets shows there is no silver bullet to provide a quick fix for drivers."
The announcement states that 40% of UK households do not have a driveway, citing a Transport for London feasibility study1. It also notes that Vauxhall welcomed property website Zoopla into the Electric Streets of Britain campaign in the month before publication, adding features to its web and app platforms showing the charging credentials of listed homes and distance to the closest public charger1.
Why it matters for households
For a household without off-street parking, access to a near home charger is the practical condition for running an electric vehicle on domestic rather than forecourt terms. The research measures that access as a four-minute walk, and puts roughly one household in four inside that radius, leaving the majority outside it1. The concentration of public chargepoints in London, at 30% of the national total, means the distance between a home and its nearest charger varies sharply by region1. The 243 councils identified as having low coverage relative to local electric vehicle numbers indicate where that gap is widest1. For homes that do have a driveway, the picture is different: charging at home draws on the household's own electricity supply, which is the arrangement most closely tied to EV charging and household energy independence. The wider context of public and home charging is set out in the ev-charging hub.
What happens next
The announcement gives no dated timetable beyond the 2030 demand projection1. It states that England's LEVI Fund and Scotland's Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund estimate at least 106,000 chargers will be deployed between them, and that requests logged through electricstreets.co.uk are shared with the campaign's partners, char.gy, Connected Kerb and SureCharge, and made available to councils through the NEVIS service1. No further dates for publication or installation have been reported.