Stone calls for more government funding for electric vehicle charging points
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MORE government funding should be made available to local authorities to prevent "eye-wateringly high" increases in charging costs for electric vehicles, according to far north MP, Jamie Stone.
He made the plea in a debate in the House of Commons and also called on UK ministers to scrap VAT on the purchase of electric vehicles.
Mr Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and easter Ross, called for action after hearing that Highland Council is considering putting the cost of charging up from 30p/kwh to 70p/kwh for rapid charging points.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Stone said: "A price rise of that scale would have a devastating effect not just on locals but on tourists because it starts to get pretty expensive to charge the car. For rural constituencies such as mine, we have to be careful about this.
"The Highlands is in many ways at the forefront of the green revolution. We produce the majority of the UK's green energy and yet, time and time again, we lack the infrastructure to benefit directly from it.
"Electric vehicle infrastructure is a necessity in a patch like the far north, a place where tourists and residents alike are reliant on cars. But when the cost of charging is so eye-wateringly high, it deters tourists from visiting and residents from making the switch from cars that rely on fossil fuels."
He added: "That's why I'm calling on the Government to provide more funding to councils across the UK so that they do not have to make the invidious decision to increase charging costs, to scrap VAT for those buying electric vehicles, and to increase the number of charging points further inland in the Highlands, in places like Altnaharra where there currently is an absence of public charging points. I am hoping that the Government looks favourably on these proposals."
