PRESS RELEASE: 74% of Brits back EV charger rollout amid surging petrol prices

New polling shows 74% of Brits want their council to maintain or increase support for the rollout of electric vehicle (EV) charging points – including nearly two-thirds of Reform UK voters.

The survey conducted by More in Common shows strong backing for local car charging networks, as the current oil and gas supply shock drives up fuel prices at the pump. This widespread approval for low-emission transport infrastructure also comes ahead of elections in England, Wales and Scotland next week.

Commenting on the findings, James Alexander, CEO of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), which commissioned the poll, said the effective rollout of public EV chargers was now a “real vote-winner”.

The national survey, conducted between April 10 and 13, 2026, among over 2000 British adults, asked participants if they thought their local council should be doing “more, less or about the same” to support the rollout of EV charging points in their area.

The results showed 42% of British adults thought their council should be doing “a lot more” or “a little more” to support the rollout of the charging points. A further 32% were content with the current pace of progress in their region, saying their local authority should be doing “about the same”.

This contrasted with just 12% of respondents who said their local authority should be doing “a little less” or “a lot less” to support the rollout of these power-generating units in their area. The remaining 14% of survey participants answered, “don’t know”.

Green Party voters who responded to the poll showed the strongest support, with 88% believing their council should maintain or increase its backing for the EV charger rollout. This was followed by 84% of Labour voters, 83% of Lib Dem voters and 78% of Conservative voters.

Despite their party’s anti-net-zero emissions stance, 63% of Reform UK voters thought their council should maintain or increase its support for the rollout of EV charging points.

The poll comes as 2025 figures showed a slowdown in the pace of new public EV charger installations compared to previous years. This is despite the UK recording record numbers of new EV sales in March this year.

As these charging points are largely privately funded, the findings demonstrate the need for government and local authorities to attract more investment into the sector.

James Alexander, CEO of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), said:

“For drivers facing stubbornly high petrol and diesel prices, switching to an electric vehicle is more attractive than ever. This means the successful rollout of charging infrastructure is now a real vote-winner.

“But the drop in the overall installation rate of these power points last year shows there is a need to pick up the pace, especially as sales of new EVs hit records.

“These chargers are predominantly funded by private investors, who are deploying billions of pounds of capital to build out the transport infrastructure that Britain is increasingly relying on.

“That’s why both the government and local authorities need to keep improving the conditions that can attract more financing into these critical projects.”

Vicky Read, CEO of ChargeUK, the EV charging industry association, said:

“The rollout of EV charging infrastructure is overwhelmingly being driven by the private sector, with £6 billion of investment committed by 2030. But local government plays a big role in planning and procurement, working in tandem with private capital to fill the less immediately commercially viable gaps – particularly for near home and on-street charging. And national government’s role is to create to right conditions for the sector to invest.

“While the sector is continuing to rollout at pace, more needs to be done by government to support investment. That means tackling network charges, which have soared due to policy change and addressing the VAT disparity between home and public charging.

“It means not flip flopping on EV sales quotas, which harms the investment case for charging infrastructure. In local government, it means speeding up charging contracts, so we see the hundred thousand government funded charge points we are anticipating rolled out in the coming months and years.”

Notes to editors:

More in Common polling: respondents have been weighted according to age/sex, region, 2024 General Election vote, ethnicity, and education level. This is a nationally representative sample of 2,011 adult Britons. The field work was carried out from April 10 to 13, 2026.

More in Common asked respondents: “Do you think your local council should be doing more, less, or about the same to support the rollout of electric vehicle charging points in your area?”

Recent figures:

Battery electric car registrations totalled 86,120 in March, a jump of 24.2% compared with the same month last year and a new record high

Public charger installations stood at 13,469 at the end of November 2025, compared with 19,834 for the whole of 2024, according to figures from Zap Map

Bloomberg reported on a ‘global EV sale spike’ this week (April 28): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-04-28/where-global-ev-sales-surged-as-oil-prices-spiked?srnd=undefined

Background:

UKSIF is a leading membership organisation that brings together the country’s sustainable investment and finance community and supports its members to expand, enhance and promote this key sector. Our more than 300 members, who have £19trn in assets under management (AUM), include investment managers, pension funds, banks, financial advisers, research providers and NGOs, among others.

Our members are active in and supportive of efforts to promote the sustainable finance agenda. Together, we work closely with policymakers and others to find new ways to overcome the barriers to the growth of sustainability and deliver progress towards decarbonisation of the economy.

Contacts:

For any further information, contact UKSIF media relations manager Douglas Whitbread at douglas.whitbread@uksif.org