Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Davies of Gower on 22 February (HL2450), whether the LEVI Fund can be used for the provision of lamp-post charging; and what standards they have set with electricity suppliers to facilitate the provision of those additional charging points.

The £381 million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund, launched in March 2023, aims to deliver a step-change in the deployment of local, primarily low power on-street charging infrastructure across England. A condition of the LEVI Capital Fund is that the majority of project costs must be related to the installation of lower-powered infrastructure suitable for local charging, such as lamp column chargepoints.

As part of their LEVI application, local authorities must provide evidence of engagement with their distribution network operator (DNO) regarding their proposed LEVI project. This allows DNOs to plan and maintain greater awareness of the need for grid upgrades. In the Plan for Drivers, Government committed to work with DNOs and key industry stakeholders on wider challenges to chargepoint rollout to overcome chargepoint installation barriers. This builds on the commitments and announcements in the DESNZ Connections Action Plan and Powering up Britain paper.