With electric vehicle network coverage still patchy across Britain, we look at how a public-private strategy helped one local authority exceed national averages from a near-standing start, with zero upfront cost.
In January 2021, Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council had close to zero effective charge points per 100,000 residents, far below the national average of 20. By last year the Greater Manchester authority had exceeded that figure.
Reaching 50 rapid and ultra-rapid points per 100,000 didn’t happen overnight, and the rate at which this localised rollout unfolded has set precedents others are now building on. A simple, easily replicable plan saw the council invite Be.EV to the table, the UK’s fastest growing electric vehicle network, for a scheme that could help expedite the roll out nationally.
‘Trafford were originally part of the TfGM [Transport for Greater Manchester] rollout. So we put in a few fast and very limited number of rapid chargers. All the ten boroughs of Greater Manchester got a share in this support,’ says Asif Ghafoor, CEO of Be.EV. ‘Trafford recognised early on that to hit targets on emissions they needed private funding to speed things up. They recognised we had a contract with the transport authority and asked about private funding.’
Be.EV then conducted analyses of sites across Trafford assessing suitability. Initially looking at local authority car parks, the reports took into consideration where power was available and housing stock types. Areas that disproportionately underserved by private driveways, therefore restricting residents’ ability to install private charge points, were considered priorities.
However, the contract also required an even spread across the area, including local town centres, regional centres, and residential neighbourhoods. Locations were chosen, and Be.EV has been responsible for all outlay. Profits from the infrastructure will be used to repay that cost over time, before the council reaps longer term financial rewards after debts are settled.
‘Eventually, we sat down and said OK, we’ve done local authority car parks, now let’s look at leisure centres, libraries, let’s fill in the gaps. Then we ran out of public land and began to look at private,’ Ghafoor continues. ‘In some cases, the council was the landlord, so approached tenants and explained the idea. Some of them said ‘OK, bring in your team, we’d like to hear from them’.
‘There’s really nothing for authorities to actually do. But I know places where they have had car parks which have been car parks for decades, yet if you ask about EV charge points they tell you no decision has been made on what to do with the car park long-term,’ he tells us. ‘Nothing will ever happen to it, but it’s that attitude. Then you have forward thinking councils who basically say: ‘we need charge points, we don’t have any money, we’ve got land, and we can give you access.’
Ghafoor feels the majority of councils seem to take the former approach, and a big issue has been central government advice. Or lack thereof. We’re told about several approaches to Downing Street requesting that guidance be published for local authorities. And hear about confused spend on lamppost charge points ‘nobody will be using in five years’ because they offer such low wattage it would take almost two days to fully refuel an average EV. The picture is one of confusion.
‘We needed a partner who understood the challenges of the area, and what Trafford looks like. The fact a lot of areas have driveways and residents can afford to have charge points installed at home,’ says Cllr Tom Ross. With 16 years behind him as a local politician, including spells as finance lead and 12 months as Mayor of Trafford, he clearly sets a high benchmark for knowledge of the area. ‘But they also needed to know there are a lot of other areas that have mainly terraces, so you need access points there.
‘As an organisation, like most local authorities, we are stretched. So having a focus on such a specific project is something we can’t do in-house. We were looking for someone to work with us, bringing expertise and knowledge about working with local communities, key stakeholders, to roll out EV charging at a much faster pace.’
By the time contracts were formally signed, in 2022, Trafford had seen coverage rise to 10 charge points per 100,000 people, a number it has since increased five-fold. Tangible evidence the approach works, we’re told the process has effectively cost the authority nothing at a time when budgets are incredibly tight, and legal advice has confirmed this does not impact complex procurement regulations. Understandably, then, the project has caught the eye of neighbouring areas, and international investors.
Stockport, another of Greater Manchester‘s ten administrative powers, is also now working with Be.EV, and the model has been fine tuned, expediting processes and bringing costs down as a result. So whereas the original approach often saw single applications submitted for a neighbourhood charging hub, which could fail, multiple sites are now chosen and two or more applications submitted, effectively hedging bets that once the application process is complete it will result in securing a site for new charging facilities.
Be.EV has also just confirmed a £55million debt fundraise through NatWest and KfW IPEX-Bank, the largest of its kind in the UK sector, increasing the firm’s rapid and ultra-rapid points to more than 1,000 nationally, prioritising communities and authorities outside the M25, with provision within London already significantly better than the rest of the country.
‘There are two things we can do tomorrow,’ Ghafoor replies when we ask for his thoughts on the UK EV network. ‘One is getting third parties to open up their land. The other is looking at the grid network. It wasn’t set up for the world we are looking at. It was set up for the 1970s. So the process of administration, the way it’s regulated, different rules, the whole thing is an almighty mess… If we got them sorted, this network and the overall decarbonisation of the country would happen much faster.
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Images: Martin Guttridge-Hewitt