What the DfT actually confirmed
After a consultation, the government confirmed that cross-pavement charging infrastructure — the channel or gully cut into the pavement — and the domestic chargepoint connected to it will carry permitted development rights in England. In plain language: if your installation fits the conditions, you no longer have to submit a separate planning application to your local planning authority.
That matters more than it sounds. Installing a kerbside cable solution previously required two separate approvals from two different bodies — planning permission and highway authority consent — with no guarantee that the first would lead to the second. The consultation was launched after the government said in April 2026 it would "double down" on charging provision.
Why a cable in the pavement was such a fight
The hardware was never the problem. Companies such as Kerbo Charge make a flush channel that sits inside the pavement and flips open when you need it, so the cable does not become a trip hazard for prams, wheelchairs or postmen. The problem was the paperwork: a homeowner with a terraced house in a street with no driveways had to spend time and money proving something that their neighbour with a driveway never has to think about.
That is the "charging divide" EVA England talks about. Its CEO Vicky Edmonds called the change "great news for drivers without a driveway, making it simpler, quicker and fairer for them to charge an EV at home."
The divide in pounds, not principles
Here is our own arithmetic, and it is the real reason this policy matters to a family budget. Take a household driving 12,000 miles (about 19,300 km) a year in a car averaging 3.5 miles per kWh. That is roughly 3,430 kWh a year. Where that electricity comes from changes everything:
- Overnight EV tariff at home (~7p/kWh): ~£240 a year
- Standard home electricity rate (~25p/kWh): ~£860 a year
- Public rapid charging (a typical UK public rapid rate of about 79p/kWh): ~£2,710 a year
The gap between charging overnight at home and relying on rapid public chargers is roughly £2,470 a year — about £205 a month. That is a family holiday, or several months of groceries. Drivers without off-street parking are pushed onto the expensive side of that line, not by choice but by postcode. You can run your own figures with our charging cost calculator and see what your tariff does with our EV tariff calculator.
A fair caveat: these are illustrative numbers. Winter consumption, motorway speed, a heat pump and the slower 22 kW public AC chargers (usually cheaper than rapid) all move the result. But the direction never changes.
What is still not solved
The change is not a free pass. Local authorities keep oversight of individual installations under Section 178 of the Highways Act 1980, and street works permissions remain necessary where they apply. Listed buildings and other excluded categories are out. And where you are a renter or your landlord owns the freehold, the government has only said it will consult on improving access — nothing is decided there yet.
In Czechia or anywhere else in the EU, laying a cable across a public pavement still means dealing with the road authority, because occupying public space is a permission, not a right. What the UK is doing is removing the second, duplicate layer of approval. On-street charging elsewhere in Europe is going a different route — in the Netherlands, for example, 1,500 Dutch public charge points now support smart charging via OCPI 2.2.1, because lamp-post charging there often needs no private cable at all.
What to do before autumn 2026
- Check your council's current policy. Some already have their own kerbside channel guidance, and the process can be quicker than you expect.
- Get quotes for the channel and the charger together. The cable gully and the wallbox are two purchases; buy them from one installer and the liability is theirs, not yours.
- Plan your tariff now, not later. An overnight EV tariff is what turns a £2,700 charging bill into a £240 one.
- If you have off-street parking, you are already ahead — compare your options in our EV catalog and check kerbside prices in our charging station map before your next long trip.
Does this apply across the whole UK?
No. Planning rules — including permitted development rights — are devolved. This change was confirmed by the UK Department for Transport for England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own rules, so check with your local planning authority there before assuming the same applies.
Can my council still refuse the installation?
Planning permission is no longer the lever, but your council still acts as highway authority and oversees the works under Section 178 of the Highways Act 1980. Street works permissions can still be required, and an installation can be refused or conditioned on safety grounds — for example if the pavement is too narrow or the crossing point is unsafe.
Source: https://www.electrive.com/2026/09/15/uk-removes-major-barrier-to-cross-pavement-ev-charging/
