What the 2025 Budget Means for Charge Point Operators and What Is Missing?

In late November 2025, the UK government unveiled its Budget 2025, and it brings significant changes for electric vehicles (EVs) and the wider sustainable transport ecosystem.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ budget speech outlined a landmark shift in EV taxation by introducing a mileage-based road levy, alongside new incentives for EV buyers, funding for charging infrastructure, and planning reforms. The measures aim to balance net-zero goals with fiscal realities, but have sparked mixed reactions from automakers, charge point operators (CPOs), and the general public. In this multi part series I’ll be digging into the budget’s EV-related proposals in detail from the proposed per-mile EV tax and its rationale to adjustments in grants, infrastructure support, and regulations. My aim here is simple: explain what these changes actually mean for consumers, CPOs and the future of sustainable transport in the UK, without the political fluff that usually gets in the way.

For charge point operators

The 2025 UK Budget came with dozens of transport, energy and economic measures, but only a handful directly affect the teams actually building and operating the UK’s charging infrastructure. For charge point operators, the meaningful changes are the ones that influence deployment speed, commercial viability and long-term operating certainty.
These include major new EV infrastructure funding, support for local authorities, reductions in cost barriers such as business rates, proposed planning reforms intended to remove red tape, and the ongoing issue of VAT inequality on public charging. So, from my point of view, how do CPOs come off after this budget, and what could have been done better? In this blog, I focus on what matters most to operators, based on what we see every day working with networks of all sizes, and not from a political angle.

But First: A Glaring Hole Not Mentioned in the Budget. The Rising Burden of Standing and Capacity Charges

Before looking at what the 2025 Budget did deliver for the EV sector, it’s essential to start with one of the most significant pressures facing charge point operators today and one that was completely absent from the Chancellor’s speech. The continued escalation of standing charges, capacity charges and wider non-energy network fees has become one of the biggest structural threats to the commercial viability of public EV charging. These costs sit entirely outside the control of operators, yet they now account for a substantial portion of the total cost of running a charging site. If you operate a hub today, you feel this before you feel anything else.

Even though wholesale electricity prices today are only marginally higher than they were in 2021, the fixed charges associated with merely having a connection to the electricity network have surged under reforms such as Ofgem’s Targeted Charging Review. These changes have reallocated network costs in ways that place a disproportionate burden on high-capacity connections including EV charging hubs, regardless of how much energy the site actually consumes. To put it bluntly, sites are paying premium tariffs for capacity they may not yet be using, but are required to reserve if they want to futureproof.

This is especially damaging for new or early-stage hubs. Operators commit to securing large capacity to avoid the cost of upgrading connections later, but they are penalised through charges that scale with potential capacity rather than actual utilisation. As the UK pushes for larger multi-bay hubs to address range anxiety and support mass EV adoption, this model becomes increasingly counterproductive.

Industry leaders have repeatedly highlighted that while consumers often assume public charging is expensive because of “high electricity prices”, the core issue lies in non-commodity charges. These have risen sharply in recent years, and for many operators now exceed wholesale energy costs altogether. Without reform, price pressure will simply continue to be pushed down to drivers, which is the opposite of what anyone wants at this stage of the transition.

The Budget’s silence on this issue is a major missed opportunity. Reforming standing and capacity charges does not require new subsidies, it requires regulatory acknowledgement and a recalibration of how the UK funds grid upkeep. Even a commitment to review the impact of these charges would have given the sector some confidence that relief may be coming.

Until this issue is addressed, public charging prices will remain shaped less by the price of electricity and more by the cost of simply being connected to the grid. For operators, this is now one of the defining challenges. For drivers, it is an invisible cost pushing prices higher. And for Government, it is an unaddressed barrier that undermines their own electrification goals.

A £600 Million Injection to Accelerate EV Infrastructure Rollout

One of the biggest wins for some of the sector is the Government’s commitment to accelerating the rollout of public charging infrastructure with an additional £200 million of investment. This comes on top of the £400 million EV Infrastructure Fund announced earlier in 2025, creating a combined £600 million pool targeted at expanding charging availability across the UK. Government sources have confirmed that the funding will support deployment in areas where commercial rollout has been slower including rural towns, regional hubs and key public destinations. The budget also confirms further support for local authorities, helping councils take charging projects from strategy into real-world delivery.

For charge point operators, this matters because it means more co-funded projects, more tenders and more opportunities to partner with local authorities who previously lacked the resource to deploy chargers at scale. In short, it unlocks projects that have been sitting on desks, waiting for someone to give the green light.

Business Rates Relief: A Major Cost Barrier Blocked, Now With Certainty

A clear and welcome part of the Budget is the extension of the 100 percent business rates relief for EV charging infrastructure until 2035. Business rates have historically been one of the biggest structural cost barriers in the sector, particularly before relief was first introduced. Even after relief arrived, its short-term nature meant operators still faced uncertainty when planning multi-year programmes.

By extending relief out to 2035, operators can now model long-term deployment strategies confidently. This strengthens the business case for rapid and ultra-rapid sites and removes one of the last outstanding tax-related blockers to large-scale rollout. It is, genuinely, one of the more sensible decisions in the entire Budget package.

Planning Reform and Red Tape Removal for Faster Deployment

The Budget confirms a consultation to expand Permitted Development Rights for EV infrastructure, one of the most operationally meaningful changes for CPOs. Planning has historically been one of the slowest and least predictable phases of deployment.

The proposed reform would allow rapid chargers and associated equipment to be installed in existing off-street car parks without full planning permission. The Budget also explores PDRs for cross-pavement charging solutions for households without driveways.

These reforms send a clear signal that the Government wants to reduce administrative friction. For operators, quicker approvals mean more predictable schedules and lower development costs. Anyone who has ever waited six months for a response to a perfectly straightforward planning application will appreciate how big this could be.

Local Authority Support to Turn Strategies Into Delivery

For several years, local authorities have been under pressure to deliver public EV charging but have lacked funding, technical resource and internal capacity. The 2025 Budget responds to this challenge by allocating further support for councils deploying charge points. With new funding enabling councils to move from planning into implementation, operators can expect more structured agreements, more partnership opportunities and stronger public-sector collaboration.

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

While the 2025 Budget introduces several welcome measures, it misses the issue that operators feel most sharply: the spiralling cost of standing and capacity charges applied to charging hubs. Addressing how these charges are calculated, capped and escalated should have been the first priority. Reforming the impact of the TCR, smoothing costs for futureproofed connections or providing relief for high-capacity sites would have eased significant pressure.

Grid access reform sits alongside this. Connection delays of months or years remain common and block the delivery of new hubs even when everything else is ready. Faster DNO response times, guaranteed maximum connection windows and targeted investment in grid reinforcement would accelerate deployment far more effectively than any tax change.

The Budget also missed an opportunity to make public charging more affordable. Cutting VAT on public charging from 20 percent to the domestic electricity rate of 5 percent would have made public charging fairer and supported utilisation at newer sites.

Finally, the sector would benefit from greater standardisation across planning, procurement and council-led delivery. Stronger national guidance on bay layouts, accessibility, wayfinding and above-ground infrastructure would reduce redesign cycles and accelerate rollout.

At Formula Space, we see these challenges every day. Operators are ready to build and invest, but they are slowed by grid queues, rising network charges, inconsistent council processes and avoidable friction above ground. A Budget aimed squarely at these systemic blockers would have transformed rollout velocity. Until then, we keep doing what we do best: removing friction above ground, building faster, designing smarter, and protecting assets so networks can grow confidently.

Conclusion: A Practical Budget With Real Gains but Major Structural Issues Remain

The 2025 Budget delivers several meaningful steps for the EV sector. The £600 million investment into infrastructure, continued business-rates relief, planning reform and expanded support for local authorities will all help accelerate deployment and reduce short-term friction.

But these gains sit alongside major omissions. Rising standing and capacity charges remain unaddressed, grid access remains slow and VAT disparity continues to make EV running costs uneven for drivers without home charging.

Taken together, the Budget is constructive but incomplete. It moves the industry in the right direction but does not yet deal with the deeper structural barriers that limit rollout. For operators focused on uptime, reliability and scaling their networks, these reforms are essential.

Until then, we’ll continue doing our part: helping networks deliver consistent, compliant, future-ready charging spaces that support the UK’s transition to electric mobility.

About the author

Reuben Elman

Marketing Lead · Formula Space

Reuben leads marketing and thought leadership at Formula Space, working closely with clients, industry specialists and internal delivery teams to understand the real shifts happening across EV infrastructure. His work focuses on turning those conversations, datasets and on-site learnings into practical insight for charge point operators and landowners across the UK and Europe.

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