The electric vehicle homecharge, workplace charging and on-street residential charge point schemes are to run for a further year but with reduced funding to support increased electric vehicle uptake.

The reduced levels of funding will enable more charge points to be installed in line with rising electric vehicle take-up

Instead of the current £500, the grants under the electric vehicle homecharge (EVHS) and workplace charging schemes will be slashed to £350 from 1 April 2020.

The Office for Low Emission Vehicles said the change in the grant will enable twice as many people to benefit from a grant; from 30,000 to 57,000 under the EVHS.

Other changes will see the number of sockets allowed under the workplace charging scheme doubled from 20 to 40 while the EVHS scheme will now cover drivers of larger electric motorbikes, as well as electric cars and vans.

In addition, OLEV is reducing the grant rate for the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS), which is open to local authorities to help cover part of the capital costs of installing charge points for residents who lack off-street parking.

The change in the grant rate, from £7,500 to £6,500, will apply for applications for the 2020/21 financial year, although OLEV can extend this to £7,500 per charge point in certain circumstances.

As with the other schemes, the reduced funding is intended to help support more charge points with the available funding.