EV charger grants in the UK: who qualifies in 2026

Which situation are you in?

Eligibility turns on two questions: do you own the house you live in, and do you have private off-street parking? The table gives the short answer for each case. The notes after it cover the edges.

Homeowner with a driveway

You are not eligible. The renters and flat owners grant says you cannot apply if you “live in a house that you own (not a flat that’s part of a house)”. The on-street grant is for people with no private and exclusive off-street parking. The government’s own announcement of the £500 rate names the winners as “renters, flat owners, homeowners without driveways and businesses”.

What you can still do: compare fitted prices on our installation cost guide, and check the 0% VAT point below. The Electric Car Grant of up to £3,750 is a discount on the car, applied by the seller. It does not interact with the charger grants.

Flat owner

You can claim if you own and live in a flat and have designated, private off-street parking. That space can be separate from the flat, but you must show a legal entitlement to it and be able to reach it at all times. A flat that is part of a converted house counts as a flat.

You need your freeholder’s or managing agent’s permission before you apply. Our flats and renters guide explains how to ask.

Renter

You can claim if you rent and live in any residential property, shared ownership included, and it has a designated private parking space. Your landlord’s permission must be in hand first. You will need a signed and dated tenancy agreement with the application. Lodgers who rent from a landlord or homeowner living in the same property are excluded.

No driveway: on-street parking

This grant opened in March 2024 and is open to owners and renters. You must fit a permanent cross-pavement solution, usually a channel set into the pavement, and your highways authority must consent. Cable covers and mats do not count. The grant pays towards the charger and its installation, not the channel, and it does not give you a reserved parking space.

Not every council approves channels, so check yours first. The full process, and what the channel costs, is in our cross-pavement charging guide.

Landlord

Residential landlords, right-to-manage and residents’ management companies, housing associations, public bodies, charities and property managers can claim up to £500 per socket, up to 200 sockets a year. You need a Companies House or VAT registration number, and the property must not be your own home or a holiday let. Two related schemes, the residential landlord infrastructure grant (up to £30,000) and the commercial landlord grant, closed on 31 March 2026.

Business

The Workplace Charging Scheme pays up to £500 per socket, up to 40 sockets. A business based at home qualifies if the address is listed at Companies House or on the business rate bill. State-funded education institutions get up to £2,000 per socket. The staff and fleets grant closed on 31 March 2026.

Who is excluded in every case

• Your charger is already installed. It must not go in before OZEV confirms you are eligible.
• You have already claimed the grant or its predecessors (the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme or the Domestic Recharge Scheme).
• You are moving house or planning to. See moving house with an EV charger.
• The charger is a legal requirement, for example in a new build under Part S in England (from 15 June 2022) or Scotland’s equivalent (from 5 June 2023).
• You do not own or have access to an eligible plug-in vehicle. A registered keeper, company-car driver, lessee, named primary user, or someone who has ordered a car arriving within three months can qualify.

How much the grant pays

The grant covers 75% of the cost to buy and install, up to £500, and it is worked out on the VAT-inclusive price. Because 75% of £667 is £500, any fitted price above about £667 gets the full amount. Typical fitted prices are £949-£999 (see what an EV charger costs to install), so most people receive the full £500.

How to apply, step by step

1. 1

   Confirm you qualify

   Check the table above, that you have an eligible plug-in car (or one on order arriving within three months), and that you have a legal right to the parking space.

2. 2

   Get permissions in writing

   Landlord, freeholder or managing agent for flats and rentals. For on-street households, your highways authority's consent for the channel. OZEV can ask for this at any time.

3. 3

   Get a quote from an OZEV-authorised installer

   Ask them to confirm they are authorised and that the grant will be deducted from your invoice. Buying your own charger can put the grant at risk, because it needs an authorised installer and an eligible chargepoint.

4. 4

   Start your application on Find a Grant

   Press 'Start new application' on the page for your scheme and create an account. Renters upload a signed tenancy agreement, a utility bill under three months old and the installer's quote. Flat owners need a utility bill and the quote. Add your order form if the car has not arrived.

5. 5

   Wait for OZEV's eligibility noticeUp to 10 working days

   OZEV estimates up to 10 working days on the new platform. Do not let the charger be installed before you hear.

6. 6

   Installation, photos and claim

   After the install you provide photos: a close-up of the charger, its model and serial number plate, the charger with its parking space, and a wide shot of the building. The installer claims on your behalf, deducts the grant from your invoice and OZEV pays the installer.

What your installer does

Your installer must be OZEV-authorised. They survey the property, quote, fit the charger and claim the grant after the job, deducting it from your invoice before they claim. OZEV pays them, not you. For an on-street grant they also arrange the cross-pavement provider if they are not fitting the channel themselves.

Installers handle the electrical paperwork too: telling the network operator, and in England Building Regulations notification through their competent person scheme. Our installation guide covers that side.

Ask each installer who carries the risk if OZEV rejects a claim after the work is done. The pages we read do not say.

What you need before you apply

• Permission letters from your landlord, freeholder or managing agent, or your council’s highways consent for a channel.
• Proof of your home: a signed and dated tenancy agreement and a utility bill under three months old if you rent, or a utility bill if you own a flat.
• Proof of the parking space: evidence of your legal entitlement to a designated private space, and that you can reach it at all times.
• The installer’s quote, from an OZEV-authorised firm.
• Vehicle details: you are the registered keeper, have a company car, lease or are the named primary user, or have the car on order with an order form.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The OZEV grants apply in all four nations. The Find a Grant pages cover England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but not the Channel Islands or Isle of Man.

Scotland has its own Energy Saving Trust schemes on top, and their status is genuinely unclear: the EST page offers up to £400 for rural households while Home Energy Scotland says the fund is closed. A cross-pavement grant of up to £3,500 runs in three council areas. Details and a checklist are on our Scotland grants page.

Wales: we found no Welsh Government home-charger grant. That is an inference from not finding one. Welsh residents use the OZEV grants.

Northern Ireland: no separate home-charger grant found. The Department for Infrastructure allows cross-pavement charging with a channel or, in a six-month pilot, a cable protector. A protector does not qualify for the OZEV on-street grant.

VAT on chargers and electricity

• Chargers and installation: 20%. EV chargepoints are not on HMRC’s list of energy-saving materials that get 0%. HMRC never says in terms that chargepoints are standard-rated, so this rests on their absence from the list.
• Home electricity: 0% in Great Britain from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, normally 5%. Northern Ireland stays at 5%. HMRC’s notice does not mention EVs, so applying it to charging at home is our inference.
• Public charging: 20%. HMRC says charging at public points is “always treated as standard-rated”.

Other help that is not an OZEV grant

• Electric Car Grant: up to £3,750 (Band 1) or £1,500 (Band 2) off eligible new cars priced up to £37,000, applied by the seller. It runs to the end of 2029-30.
• Supplier offers: Octopus EV’s lease and salary-sacrifice customers can get £400 off a home charger, and Intelligent Octopus Go advertises prices from £949 including standard installation. These are commercial offers, not grants.
• Councils: we found no direct household grant from any council. In England, councils may pass on a separate £25m Pavement Channels Grant as cheaper channels, but residents cannot apply to it.

What happens after March 2027?

Nothing has been announced. The government calls 2026/27 the “final year” for the home and workplace grants, says funding is “confirmed until 31 March 2027”, and reserves the right to end or change the scheme. We found no successor scheme in any source.

The pages we read give 31 March 2027 as the closing date for applications. They do not spell out whether the installation must also be finished by then. Installers quote one to six weeks from enquiry to fit, and OZEV allows up to 10 working days to assess. If you qualify, aim to apply well before the end of 2026. The temporary 0% VAT on electricity also ends on 31 March 2027.