A £250m-a-year capital investment fund granted to the nine Metro Mayors is doing little to support the UK’s electric vehicle transition, according to new research from Novuna Vehicle Solutions.  

Despite a £250m-a-year capital investment fund, just a limited number of charging points were installed in 2021 across the nine City Regions, according to Novuna’s analysis

Despite a mandate to invest the money in significant open-to-all EV infrastructure projects, just a limited number of charging points were installed in 2021 across the nine City Regions, which account for over 14 million residents, the leasing giant revealed.

And publicly disclosed information has not made it clear whether any have been funded by the Metro Mayor capital investment fund.

The nine Metro Mayor positions, created as part of the Government’s devolution agenda, are held by directly elected leaders of the UK’s major city regions, each of whom has access to a relative share of a £7.45bn capital investment fund over a 30-year period. This equates to £250m for each calendar year.

These budgets are in addition to the availability of the £6.8bn City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement, which allows the Metro Mayors (with the exception of North of Tyne) to bid to fund initiatives that work towards decarbonising transport, in line with national priorities.

But Novuna said there is no evidence that the fund, set to be shared from 2022-2027 between the eight eligible Mayors, is being put towards EV infrastructure.

Its investigation of the official Statement of Accounts of the Metro Mayors and their Combined Authorities found little evidence of investment in EV infrastructure over the 2020/21 tax year. West Yorkshire was the only city region to explicitly reference expenditure on charging points in its accounts, with the installation of 88 electric vehicle charging points as part of the region’s £3.2m ULEV Taxi Scheme. But there is no evidence of any follow-up schemes.

Meanwhile in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the only instance of an EV-related scheme in its Local Transport Plan is a £90,000 project to install four rapid electric vehicle chargers for the local taxi trade.

And Novuna says Greater Manchester, which has the one of the highest allocated investment funds (£900m), does not have a single mention of EV infrastructure in its Statement of Accounts, and it is difficult to ascertain how many of the charging points in the authority’s EV Charging Infrastructure Strategy are actively going into the ground.

With major “shovel-ready” EV infrastructure projects so far, few and far between, Novuna is warning that this leaves the UK at risk of failing to fulfil its pledge to phase out sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.

Robert Gordon, CEO of Novuna, said: “The Metro Mayors were installed with the clear goal of boosting the economic and infrastructural development of strategically important regions across the UK. There are understandably a number of competing priorities, however, if the Government hopes to fulfil its headline pledge to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030, a top priority for city transport projects needs to be upgrading regional EV infrastructure. As it stands, we see very little evidence that this is happening at the pace required.”

Gordon added that the lack of tangible action is at odds with other public and private sector initiatives to support the UK’s EV transition – such as the Government’s Plug-in Grants and Benefit-in-Kind schemes which have had highly positive impacts but are being wound down amid greater organic demand for EVs.

He continued: “The clock is ticking on the Government’s commitment to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2030. With the number of EV motorists only growing, it is vital that there is more transparency on how public money is being spent on public charging infrastructure, especially for the 40% or so of people who do not have access to off-street parking and will rely on the public network. The sizeable capital investment funds represent a significant opportunity to close the EV infrastructure gap, and greater evidence that they are being used to support this pledge will allow motorists to make the leap to an EV with confidence.”