Cross-pavement EV chargers no longer need planning permission: what it means before your next road trip

By the Travel & Explore team · Last checked 30 October 2026

From 21 October 2026, a qualifying cross-pavement channel in England can be installed without a planning application. The change is for homes that park on the street. It does not add chargers along a holiday route.

You still cannot run a cable across the pavement yourself. The highway authority has to agree the works. Sort that out before you rely on a home charge for the first morning of a trip.

What changed

The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2026 came into force on 21 October 2026. It was made on 25 September 2026. It amends the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, which applies to all land in England.

The Department for Transport said the same day that drivers no longer need planning permission to install cross-pavement chargers which run under pavements from people's homes to their cars (DfT news release, 21 October 2026).

The new right is Class F. It permits the installation, alteration or replacement of a cross-pavement solution by a highway authority, on its behalf, or with its authorisation.

In that class, a cross-pavement solution is a pavement-embedded cable channel. It lets a charging cable cross a footway from a domestic premises to a parked vehicle.

The same order also widens the rights for a wall outlet or an upstand at a house or block of flats, including where the curtilage is not an off-street parking space. Where a footway sits between that outlet and the car, the cable must cross it through an authorised channel while the outlet is in use.

The Department for Transport also says the permitted-development changes make it quicker and cheaper for operators to install larger, higher-powered public charging hubs. The limits for that equipment are in the order, not in this page.

Who it is for

• Homes in England without a driveway, where the car parks on the street.
• The Department for Transport describes it as charging at home without a driveway.
• Not Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. This order amends the England rules. The amendment order extends to England and Wales, but the 2015 order it changes applies to land in England. Check the government where the house is.
• Not the public chargers on the route, and not charging once you are abroad. See EV road trips in Europe.

Conditions in the order

Class F does not allow the channel if it would be:

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

When the channel is no longer needed, it must be removed as soon as reasonably practicable. The pavement must be put back, as soon as reasonably practicable, to the condition it was in before the works.

The order also adds limits for the wall outlet. They sit alongside the older Class D limits in the 2015 order, so read both before you rely on a short list. Limits the 2026 order states:

• The outlet is not permitted if it would be installed more than 1.6 metres above ground level.
• In the part of the curtilage that is not an off-street parking area: not more than one outlet, and not within a conservation area.
• On a wall of a house or block of flats that immediately adjoins a highway: the outlet must not protrude more than 0.2 metres from the wall, and there must be at least 1.5 metres of footway between the outermost projection and the edge of the carriageway.
• If a footway lies between the outlet, or an upstand, and the vehicle, the cable must cross that footway by an authorised cross-pavement solution while it is in use.

"Authorised" means installed by, on behalf of, or with the authorisation of, the relevant highway authority.

The pavement permission that remains

Planning permission and permission for the pavement are different. Class F is permitted development only when the highway authority installs the channel, someone installs it for that authority, or the authority authorises it. The order uses "highway authority", not "council". Ask the council for the road whether it is the highway authority for that pavement.

Section 178 of the Highways Act 1980 still says no person shall place a cable over, along or across a highway without the highway authority's consent. The authority may attach reasonable terms. A refusal, or those terms, can be appealed to a magistrates' court. The 2026 order does not amend section 178.

The Department for Transport's September 2026 response says installers will still need that section 178 consent. It also says the government is not removing the section 50 street works licence where works are required on the public highway. The response's glossary identifies that licence as section 50 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991. Section 50 lets the street authority license a person to place apparatus in the street, and to maintain it.

The response says councils keep the power to refuse a site that is unsuitable, or where accessibility or safety would be compromised.

Ask the highway authority for your road which application it wants, and wait for the answer before any work. A channel is not something to arrange the night before you leave.

The saving GOV.UK states

That release does not set the price of a channel, a home charger, or a public charge on a trip. Ask the installer and the highway authority for the cost of the works. For the drive itself, put your own prices into the trip fuel and charging cost calculator.

Before the next road trip

A lawful home charge can fill the car before the first leg. It does nothing for the stops after you leave.

• Do not trail a cable across the pavement. Where a footway sits between the outlet and the car, the order requires an authorised channel while the outlet is in use.
• Plan the public stops as before. Use EV road trip planning in the UK and EV charging apps and cards.
• On a remote route, leaving home full does not replace the chargers along the way. See the NC500 in an electric car.
• If you start from someone else's house, the same England rules apply to their pavement.

Consultations still open

Two further consultations opened on 21 October 2026. They are not rules yet. Each closes at 11:59pm on 16 December 2026.

• Expanding electric vehicle charging access for tenants and leaseholders asks about an "ability to charge", to streamline landowner permission for tenants and leaseholders in England.
• Amending the building regulations: electric vehicle charging infrastructure asks about extending charge-point requirements to covered car parks in England. Part S of the building regulations sets EV charge-point requirements for new buildings and major renovations, and those requirements do not currently apply to enclosed or open-sided car parks.

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