The UK Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund supports local authorities in England to work with the chargepoint industry, to improve the roll out and commercialisation of local charging infrastructure.
Local authorities must submit expressions of interest by 26 May 2023.
These public chargepoints will help residents who don’t have off-street parking and need to charge their electric vehicles (EVs).
The fund includes:
- Capital funding to contribute to the costs of delivering chargepoints.
- Capability funding for local authorities to employ and train new staff specifically to plan and deliver chargepoint infrastructure.
The LEVI Fund builds on the existing On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS). An updated ORCS is available to all UK local authorities in 2023/24, to provide public chargepoints for residents who don’t have access to private parking.
Capital fund
Objectives
The LEVI Capital fund aims to:
- deliver a step-change in the deployment of local, primarily low power, on-street charging infrastructure across England
- accelerate the commercialisation of, and investment in, the local charging infrastructure sector
Application process
For local authorities to access their indicative funding, they must follow a three-stage process:
There are three stages to the LEVI Capital fund application process:
- Stage one: expression of interest
- Stage two: business case, criteria compliance and tender document review
- Stage three: contract review
You can find more information on the process in the LEVI Capital Fund information pack, including the full assessment criteria.
Stage one – expression of interest
Local authorities must show evidence of how they plan to use their LEVI capital funding by completing an expression of interest (EOI) form. All local authorities will need to submit their EOI by 26 May 2023.
During the EOI stage, local authorities will be asked if they’d like to receive their capital funding in either the 2023/2024 financial year (referred to as tranche one during the application process) or the 2024/2025 financial year (tranche two).
Local authorities should indicate their preferred tranche based on how prepared they are to submit a full LEVI Capital fund application and receive funding.
The LEVI Support Body will assess the EOIs and determine which tranche the local authority will progress in. The Support Body will notify local authorities of their tranche, and then help local authorities with the next stage of their application.
Access and complete the LEVI Expression of Interest form.
You can also download the questions for reference.
Stage two – business case criteria compliance and tender document review
Local authorities that have been assigned a tranche will be given access to the stage two application form. The application form will ask local authorities to develop a business case and produce a draft tender document for review.
The deadline for stage two applications for 2023/2024 funding (tranche one) is 17 November 2023. The application deadline for 2024/2025 funding (tranche two) will be announced shortly. Local authorities in both tranche one and tranche two will receive ongoing support from the Support Body to develop the stage two application form, and will be encouraged to complete their applications ahead of final deadlines.
Once the stage two application form has been approved, 90% of funding will be released and the local authority can open procurement for a provider(s). The final 10% of funding will be delivered following stage three of the application process (see below).
Stage three – contract review
Local authorities that have completed stages one and two will submit their draft EV infrastructure contract to the Support Body for review and approval. This will be assessed to determine whether the commercial arrangement between local authorities and private sector partners meet the fund criteria. The deadline for stage three applications for 2023/2024 funding (tranche one) is September 2024.
Once the criteria have been met, the Support Body will give local authorities approval to sign their contract. Following this stage, the final 10% of funding will be paid to the local authority.
