UK EV motorists facing a public charging ‘postcode lottery’
EV drivers across the UK are encountering a “postcode lottery” when it comes to public charge points, according to new data.
Motorists in London and across the South have the best access to fast-growing public charging networks, with Westminster alone boasting 2,746 public chargers. In the North, however, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, and Sheffield have a combined population of 2.7 million and just 2,485 public chargers installed.
To highlight how much the ‘Northern Five’ cities are affected by the EV postcode lottery, Coventry in the West Midlands, with its population of around 350,000 people, is better served than the five combined cities thanks to a 2,746-strong public charger network.
In the recent Autumn Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced that the UK Government will allocate £200 million to help local councils support public charging initiatives. However, experts have warned that this investment must be matched with consistent guidance from Westminster to help local authorities install chargers and end what they described as “Britain’s growing charging postcode lottery”.
“The scale of the disparity is impossible to ignore,” commented Ginny Buckley, the chief executive of EV advice site Electrifying. “Coventry has over 750 chargers per 100,000 people, every one of the Northern Five has fewer than 100, and Westminster tops the chart with more than 1,300 per 100,000. Not a single area in the top ten [areas best for public charging] is in the North, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
“This isn’t about geography – it’s about consistency,” she continued. “Some councils are innovating with charging gullies and street solutions, while others can’t get schemes off the ground. We urgently need a joined-up, national approach that gives local authorities the guidance, expertise and confidence to install the right chargers in the right places. Without that, the EV transition will be fair for some and impossible for others.”
Ultimately, if the inconsistency between local authorities isn’t addressed, the regional imbalance risks creating a “two-tier system” in which EV owners in London and the South are well served with public charge points, and those in the North are left with insufficient infrastructure and support.
John Lewis, the CEO at UK public charge point provider, char.gy, highlighted Coventry City Council as an example of delivering “rapid, reliable infrastructure at scale.”
“Coventry is proof that rapid rollout isn’t a London-only story,” he said. “It’s what happens when a council has clarity, capability and committed partners. Many other areas want to deliver the same, but they’re held back by a variety of factors, such as planning and grid capacity.
“Funding matters, but it doesn’t fix these bottlenecks. If we want to end the postcode lottery, we need to give every council what Coventry already has – the confidence and capacity to get chargers in the ground quickly and in the right places.”
Despite what appears to be a gloomy outlook, the UK public charging network has grown by over 20% year-on-year from 2024 to 2025, with over 86,000 charge points installed nationwide. Moreover, the number of chargepoints outside of London increased by 23.4% between October 2024 and 2025.
