Speeches by Olney.

“Residents in my constituency will have been extremely concerned to read the news this morning that the Chancellor plans to announce next week the expansion of Heathrow. I invite her to tell us, on the Floor of the House this morning, yes or no: will the Government back expansion at Heathrow?”

“Are you monitoring it?”

“I think this is a question for Mr Shaw. Among the written evidence that we have had is evidence submitted by the National Fire Chiefs Council. It reflects a conversation I had last year with the head of my local fire station in Richmond about electric vehicle fires. I was really alarmed by what I was told. We had recen…”

“The issue is more that when they do, the impact is much greater than from petrol or diesel vehicle fires.”

“I would welcome that; thank you.”

“Ms Shanmugalingam, we have talked a bit about the gaps in the chargepoint infrastructure. What are the remaining significant challenges to overcoming those? What are the biggest issues you are dealing with in order to fill in the gaps?”

“Yes.”

“What is the challenge in addressing the remaining cold spots?”

“Talking about that continued investment, the Department is currently consulting on changes to the zero emission vehicles mandate. Looking at the written evidence, ChargeUK, the body for companies providing charging, is very concerned that the result of that consultation means you are going to scale back the mandate, bu…”

“So what you are saying is that even if you make changes to the ZEV mandate, you do not see that impacting the investment levels for charging infrastructure.”

“Thank you. VAT is another area of significant public interest. Obviously, if you are charging at home on your driveway, you are paying a reduced level of VAT on that electricity, but for public chargepoints you are paying the 20% rate. That creates a significant inequality, depending on whether you are charging at home…”

“Of course. Have you been making representations to the Treasury on this point?”

“There is still a big disparity.”

“I am just going to stop you there. As a representative of a constituency with a lot of on-street parking, I can tell you that that is not going to address the issue, because it is quite rare that you get to park directly outside your own home.”

“But the disparity will still remain.”

“Thinking about the chargepoint gaps along major A roads, which particular A roads do you think are currently the worst culprits for a lack of chargepoints?”

“You say they are being deployed so quickly, and a lot of that is due to private investment, but are there areas of the country that are particularly lacking or lack the ability to attract that investment?”

“Are you currently confident that the private sector investment out there is sufficient to fill in the remaining cold spots, and do you expect to see the strategic road network fully charged—if that is the right phrase—at some point in the near future?”

“We talked previously about the impact that the disparity in VAT will have on consumers, dependent on whether they are charging at home or at a public chargepoint. What will you be doing, Mr Bruce, to monitor the different levels of charges being paid by different groups of chargers?”

“Sorry to interrupt, but over time the comparison with petrol is going to fall away—I assume that is the goal, because you will want EVs to be the default option—and the comparison will be between different ways of charging. Not every way of charging is going to be available to every consumer; there will, perhaps, be gr…”