Suffolk County Council will begin installing thousands of public electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints across residential streets and public car parks from summer 2025, aiming to remove a key barrier to EV adoption for households without driveways.
The project, supported by a £5.3m grant from the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund and £16m in private investment from chargepoint operator Believ, will see the rollout of kerbside bollard-style units and rapid chargers in public car parks. These will offer discounted overnight and resident tariffs, helping to make EV ownership more viable for local drivers.
Councillor Philip Fairclough-Mutton, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for environment, communities and equality, said: “25% of Suffolk households don’t have a driveway, and park on their street. This is a significant barrier for people who would like an EV, as they have no convenient way to charge. We are providing a solution by installing chargepoints on their street, or very nearby. Our ambition is to provide them with a public chargepoint within a 5–10 minute walk or wheel.”
He added: “There are around 1.5 million EVs on the country’s roads and we need thousands of new public chargepoints in Suffolk, and we need them quickly – around 5,400 by 2030, and 12,000 by 2040. Working with Believ, our new installations will bring a significant reduction to those numbers.”
Believ will install, operate and maintain the chargepoints, which will deliver 100% renewable energy. The company will also support the installation of rapid chargers at key community locations, building on Suffolk’s earlier ‘Plug In Suffolk’ initiative launched in 2018.
Guy Bartlett, Believ CEO, said: “We’re delighted to have been awarded the opportunity to rollout such a significant number of chargepoints across Suffolk. It will make a real difference to local EV drivers and give others the confidence to go electric, helping to support our mission to deliver cleaner air for all. Through this project we forecast the removal of nearly 140,000 tons of emissions by the end of the initial phase in late 2026.”
Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood added: “Making charging as easy as possible is a crucial ingredient to make the switch to electric a success. Rolling out over 6,000 charging sockets across Suffolk will make driving an EV easier and more convenient, especially for those without a driveway.”
In advance of installations, residents will receive letters with details of the work and timescales. The council is the first in England to award and sign a LEVI main funding contract, allowing installations to begin at pace.
