Charge your electric vehicle at home

You can apply for a grant to install an off-street charging point and guidance for charging your electric vehicle (EV) at home.

Grants for off-street charging points

If you have a driveway or other off-street parking, you can apply for a grant from the government’s Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme.

Employers can also apply for a government grant to install charging points at a business or workplace through the Workplace Charging Scheme.

How you can charge your EV at home

You can charge your vehicle on:

• your own driveway or land
• someone else’s land if you have their permission

We have a legal duty to ensure the safety of the highway in accordance with the Highways Act 1980 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

This also includes obligations under the Electrical Wiring Regulations. Anything which causes a potential obstruction or trip hazard is not permitted. All electrical equipment has been certified and regularly tested as safe.

A power cable trailing across a footway, road or verge is a potential trip hazard. If someone tripped and injured themselves, you could be prosecuted and there may be liability under civil law.

We do not provide household charging facilities or offer a reserved space to charge your own EV.

You must not install a:

• private charge point on the pavement or street outside your home (only the council can install equipment on the pavement or the street)
• charging cable gully or channel into the pavement, or verge outside your home because this is a potential trip hazard

In most cases you will not need planning permission if:

• the charging point does not exceed 0.2 cubic metres
• the charging point does not face onto and be within two metres of a motorway
• your property is not a listed building

You can find out more by reading The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.

If you are in a conservation area and your charging point will be visible to the public, you may need planning permission.

If you have a front garden and want to create an off-street charging space for yourself, you will need to request planning permission for a dropped kerb.

Other places you can charge your EV

You can find out where the public charging points are in South Gloucestershire.

You can also suggest where you think a public residential charge point is needed and find out more about EVs and charging on the Travelwest website.

To use our public EV charging points you will need to sign up to the Revive Network.

More information about sustainable and active travel

Visit the Travelwest website for more information about sustainable and active travel.