Charging an Electric Car Without a Driveway: The Planning Rules Change in England on 21 October

Charging an electric car at home has, in practice, been a driveway privilege. A household that parks on the street could in principle run a cable across the pavement through a channel set into it, but doing so properly means up to three separate permissions, and one of them is a full planning application.

From 21 October 2026 that planning application will no longer be needed in England, except in conservation areas, within the curtilage of a listed building and on scheduled monuments. The instrument is the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2026, SI 2026/1056, made by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 25 September and laid before Parliament on 30 September. It adds a new permitted development right for cross-pavement charging channels and widens the existing rights for home charge points.

What it does not remove is the council’s control of the pavement. That point decides most of what follows.

Why on-street charging needs planning permission until 21 October

The permitted development rights for home charge points, Classes D and E of Part 2 of the 2015 Order, apply only “within an area lawfully used for off-street parking”. Until 21 October, a charge point anywhere else needs planning permission. The guidance for councils published by the Department for Transport and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles in December 2024 says so directly: “Planning permission will be required for all private chargepoint installations serving an on-street parking area” unless the council has made a local development order.

The government’s response to its consultation on these changes, published in September 2026, lists the permissions a household without off-street parking needs for a channel and a charger under the current rules:

• permission from the local authority, as highway authority, to lay a cable across the pavement under section 178 of the Highways Act 1980
• planning permission for the cross-pavement solution and the charge point
• street works permissions to install the channel

From 21 October the Order removes the second. The first and third stay.

The new right for a cable channel across the pavement

The Order inserts a new Class F into Part 9 of the 2015 Order. It permits “the installation, alteration or replacement of a cross-pavement solution by, on behalf of, or with the authorisation of, a highway authority.”

A cross-pavement solution is defined as “a pavement-embedded cable channel that allows a cable for the recharging of electric vehicles to safely cross a footway from a domestic premises to a parked vehicle.” A cable mat or cover laid on top of the pavement is not an embedded channel.

The right is not one a householder can use alone. The channel has to be installed by the highway authority, on its behalf, or with its authorisation. The government’s grant page for on-street households puts the practical rule plainly: “You must not install cross-pavement solutions on the public road network yourself.” Nothing in the Order obliges a highway authority to authorise a channel.

Class F does not apply in three places. A channel is not permitted development:

• within a site designated as a scheduled monument
• within the curtilage of a listed building
• within a conservation area

It also comes with a condition. When the channel is no longer needed, it must be removed “as soon as reasonably practicable”, and the pavement reinstated to its previous condition.

The highway authority still decides

The explanatory memorandum published with the Order is explicit that the planning change is the only change: “Separate permissions are still required, including permission from the relevant highway authority under section 178 of the Highways Act 1980 to lay a cable across the pavement.”

The street works licence stays too. The December 2024 guidance says anyone who is not a statutory undertaker must apply to the highway authority for a licence under section 50 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, and the government’s consultation response says it “does not consider it appropriate to remove the requirement for Section 50 licences where works are required on the public highway at this time.”

The December 2024 guidance states where the decision sits: “The decision to permit the installation of a cross-pavement solution rests with the relevant local authority.” Councils’ approaches differ, and the consultation response notes that “many authorities are still developing their approaches to cross-pavement solutions.” The Order does not change any council’s approach.

The charge point at the house

The Order rewrites Class D, which covers a charge point mounted on a wall, so that it applies either within an area lawfully used for off-street parking or “within any other area within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse or block of flats”. The explanatory memorandum gives “a small front garden without a parking space” as the example, and the right also covers a charge point on the wall of a house that opens straight onto the pavement.

The limits for a wall charge point under the new route are:

• It must be a dedicated charging point. The Order defines an electrical outlet as a charging point for electric vehicles “not including by means of a standard domestic plug and socket”. A three-pin socket on an outside wall does not qualify.
• The outlet and its casing may not exceed 0.2 cubic metres, a limit the explanatory memorandum says has been retained from the existing rules.
• It may not be installed more than 1.6 metres above ground level.
• There may be no more than one outlet within the curtilage of the house, or of the block of flats.
• It is not permitted in a conservation area, within the curtilage of a listed building, or on a scheduled monument.
• On a wall that immediately adjoins a highway, the outlet may not protrude more than 0.2 metres from the wall, and at least 1.5 metres of footway must remain between its outermost point and the edge of the carriageway. This limit applies to every wall charge point under Class D, not only the new route.

Then the condition that ties the charger to the channel. Where there is a footway between the charge point and the car, “when the outlet is in use the charging cable must cross the footway by means of an authorised cross-pavement solution.” A cable trailed loose across the pavement, or laid under a mat, does not meet it.

The same changes are made to Class E, which covers a free-standing charging post, or upstand. Under the new route an upstand may be no higher than 1.6 metres, is not permitted in a conservation area, and carries the same condition that the cable crosses the footway through an authorised channel.

What changes for a household with no driveway

For a house in England outside a conservation area, not listed and not on a scheduled monument, the change is this. From 21 October, a dedicated charge point on the front wall or in the front garden, and a channel across the pavement installed by or with the authorisation of the highway authority, will not need a planning application, provided the limits above are met.

The sequence still starts with the council as highway authority. Its section 178 consent and the section 50 licence for the street works are required as before, and without them there is no authorised channel, which means the charge point’s own condition cannot be met.

For a house in a conservation area, nothing changes. Both the channel right and the new charge point right exclude conservation areas, so a planning application is still needed. The same applies within the curtilage of a listed building.

Nothing in the Order reserves the parking space outside the house. A channel lets a cable reach the kerb; it gives no right to park there.

Installers and electrical safety

The Order sets no qualification for whoever fits the charge point. The government’s consultation response says installations “should continue to comply with BS 7671”, the wiring regulations, and the December 2024 guidance says charging equipment “must comply with BS-7671”.

The channel itself is a different matter. It goes in the public highway, so it is installed by the highway authority, by someone acting on its behalf, or by someone it has authorised.

The grant for households with on-street parking

A grant already exists for exactly this arrangement. The Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant for Households with On-Street Parking offers “75% off the cost to buy and install a socket, up to a maximum of £500.” The conditions, as the government’s grant page states them:

• the household must not have “private and exclusive access to off-street parking such as a driveway, garage or residential car park”
• a cross-pavement solution must be installed alongside the charge point, and it “must not be a temporary solution, such as cable covers or mats”
• the application must evidence the local highway authority’s consent for the channel
• the charge point must be installed by an OZEV approved installer

The grant is open to homeowners and renters across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and closes at 11pm on 31 March 2027. The grant page says “Funding is confirmed until 31 March 2027”. It also notes that the grant “does not confer ownership over, exclusive use of, or reserved access to any on-street parking space.”

The application asks the household to declare that it will obtain the necessary planning permissions. For a qualifying home in England, from 21 October that permission is granted by the Order itself.

Households that already have a driveway

Three of the changes reach charge points on driveways as well. The 1.6 metre height limit is written into the general Class D restrictions, so it applies to every wall-mounted charge point under Class D, not only the new route. So does the limit for a wall that immediately adjoins a highway: no more than 0.2 metres of protrusion, and at least 1.5 metres of footway left to the edge of the carriageway. The cable condition is written in general terms too, and applies wherever a footway lies between a Class D charge point and the car it charges.

The Order includes a transitional provision. Development that was permitted under Class D or Class E before 21 October 2026 and is no longer permitted because of these amendments may still be carried out until the end of 20 October 2027.

Where this applies, and what is still to come

The Order applies in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own permitted development rules, and none of the limits above should be read across.

The explanatory memorandum says the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles “will shortly publish updated guidance to support local authorities, industry and households in understanding how the new rights for electric vehicle charging infrastructure should be applied.” Energy Pages had not found that guidance published when the sources for this article were read.

The same Order also raises the size limit for electricity substations that network operators may build without a planning application, allows multiple equipment housings for charging in non-domestic car parks, and extends a temporary right for schools affected by RAAC concrete. None of those changes the position for a household.

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Read at source on 9 October 2026: the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2026, SI 2026/1056, on legislation.gov.uk in the version as made, and its explanatory memorandum. The charge point changes are articles 4 (Class D) and 5 (Class E), the new cross-pavement right is article 7 (Class F of Part 9), and the transitional provision is article 10. Also read: the Department for Transport’s “Changes to various permitted development rights for EV charging: government response” (September 2026), the Department for Transport and Office for Zero Emission Vehicles guidance “Cross-pavement solutions for charging electric vehicles” (published 24 December 2024), and the Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Grant for Households with On-Street Parking on the government’s Find a Grant service. Energy Pages is an independent information service, not a government body, a planning authority, a highway authority or an installer, and nothing here is planning advice: the local authority’s own view on a specific property and pavement is the only one that decides it.