Plug in Suffolk frequently asked questions

Suffolk County Council does not permit residents to run a charging cable over or across the public footway to charge an electric vehicle. Trailing cables create safety and accessibility risks.

In 2025, Suffolk County Council ran a 12-month trial of several “cross-pavement solutions” which allow a cable to be run from a home charger through a channel in the pavement to a parked electric vehicle on the road.  You can find out more about applying for a charging channel at Apply and pay for a home EV charging channel - Suffolk County Council. If you have questions about your eligibility for a charging channel, please contact highways.streetfurniture@suffolk.gov.uk.

The Autumn 2025 budget reinforced the Government's support for electric vehicles (EVs) but introduced measures like the Pence Per Mile tax (dubbed eVED, meaning Electric Vehicle Excise Duty) that may concern some drivers. eVED will not take effect until 2028.

If you were driving the UK average mileage each year (around 7,500 miles), eVED would add less than £225 per year to your car running costs. For ICE vehicle owners, fuel duty will gradually increase from September 2026 as the current freeze ends, raising pump prices.

The government is reviewing EV charging costs, presenting a chance to reconsider lowering VAT on public charging and easing standing or capacity charges. The review will be completed before the next Autumn budget in 2026.

Charging at home or using public fast chargers (7-22kW) at around 50p/kWh still means cheaper motoring on the whole than driving petrol or diesel vehicles. Many providers, such as Believ, offer subscription and off-peak tariffs which further reduce charging costs compared to ICE vehicles. Suffolk residents who live near a chargepoint will be able to sign up for this special tariff at Believ - Registration.

What else is happening to benefit EV drivers?

• More Money for EV Discounts:
  The government is putting £1.3 billion into the Electric Vehicle grant, and will keep it running until 2030, so buying an electric car stays cheaper.
• Big Boost for Charging Points
  £200 million is going into more chargers, including help for workplaces and local councils.
• Charging Costs Under Review
  Government will look at ways to make public charging cheaper starting 2026.
• Luxury Tax Threshold Raised
  From 2026, you won’t pay extra tax unless your EV costs more than £50,000 (up from £40,000).
• Cheaper for Businesses
  EV charging sites won’t pay business rates until 2035, making it easier for companies to install chargers.
• Fuel Prices Frozen for Now
  Petrol and diesel tax stays the same until 2026, but then it goes up - making EVs better on price, long-term.

The case for driving electric is getting stronger, and many EV drivers enjoy extra benefits. With almost two million battery electric cars on Britain’s roads already, electric cars can be better for the pocket and better for the planet.

Got questions? Email evcharging@suffolk.gov.uk to ask any questions you may have about switching to an EV.

We have selected and analysed streets where people tend to park overnight and would have difficulty charging an EV at home. Residents were also invited to nominate streets where they would like to see a public chargepoint installed. Alongside this, we have surveyed streets to assess the power supply, any highway constraints, physical space available, pavement width and parking restrictions. A thorough assessment has taken place.

Not every street that is suggested will be suitable to receive a chargepoint. This could be for various reasons, including:

• availability of a suitable power supply
• highway constraints
• insufficient physical space e.g. pavement width
• planning constraints.

There is also a limited amount of funding available. We will investigate every suggestion made, but we cannot guarantee that every site suggested will receive a chargepoint.

Residents without a driveway or garage face challenges when it comes to charging an EV - in some cases it is just not possible, and it is unsafe and hazardous to run cables across pavements. Along with inconvenient access to public charging, these are common reasons that people give for not choosing an EV.

However, the funding will start to provide solutions to these issues, with opportunities to develop:

• kerbside charging points
• community charging hubs
• car park charging points
• fast and rapid charging point infrastructure improvements.

Suffolk County Council have received £5.33 million in government funding from the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund. The funding is specific to providing chargepoints and can only be spent on improving the public charging network in Suffolk. It cannot be spent on anything else, such as potholes or bins.

There are already around 2 million electric vehicles on UK roads (3 million including hybrids), a number which continues to increase. We want to make sure nowhere in Suffolk is left behind, and all residents can charge an electric vehicle nearby, conveniently and safely.

Our aim is for all the chargepoints installed at 7kW and above to have a contactless feature, which will enable you to pay for your charge with a bank card, as you do for purchasing items in a shop.

Suffolk County Council was grateful to receive hundreds of suggestions of streets where residents would like on-street electric vehicle chargepoints to be installed. Those suggestions played a key role in helping us to identify areas for installation, and are being investigated for meeting Highways constraints and connection viability.

The majority of locations, however, have been chosen because residents along the street do not have a driveway or a garage and therefore rely on on-street parking. It is these residents who will benefit the most from the project.

The demand for electric vehicles is on the rise and charging infrastructure needs to keep up with this.

Predictions show that by 2040 Suffolk will need around 12,000 public chargepoints across the county to meet resident’s needs. Although not every resident will own, or immediately be switching to an EV, this project is about future-proofing each area ahead of demand.

As of the end of April 2026, there are over 2 illion fully electric cars in the UK. This means that around 5.8% of the c.34 million cars on UK roads are fully electric. EVs will come down in price over the next few years, especially in the run-up to the national “Zero Emission Vehicle” mandate taking full effect (you can find out more at gov.uk.)

Believ's chargepoints will be 22kW. Each socket delivers 11kW when in use at the same time. This means most EVs would need to be plugged in for 5 to 8 hours to fully charge .

Urban Fox's chargepoints are 7kW chargepoints delivering a charge over 8-12 hours. Both chargepoints are best used overnight when the tariffs are lowest.

No. We understand not everyone is ready to switch to an EV yet, and the pressure for parking on busy streets therefore we will not restrict on-street chargepoint bays to “EVs only”. We would only consider this if it became necessary as EV adoption rates in an area increased. If and when this happens, residents would always be consulted first through the usual Traffic Regulation Order process.

Installations began in Autumn 2025. In total, around 6,000 chargepoints will be delivered in stages between 2026 and 2030. 

The project is a public/private partnership. The Council has received funding from central government to support the installation of chargepoints. The Council has partnered with a number of Charge Point Operators (CPOs) who will own, operate, and maintain the charge points.

Each chargepoint will have information on it identifying who is responsible. Currently the following CPOs have chargepoints operating in Suffolk in partnership with the Council:

• Believ
• Connected Kerb
• Our other delivery partner, Urban Fox will be installing chargepoints in the coming months. Contact details for Urban Fox can be found at Contact the Urban Fox Team.