Before taking office, the new PM had said very little about EVs publicly, with more attention paid to his introduction of Manchester's Clean Air Zone in 2022. But his early days in Downing Street have already given us a clearer signal than any speech could, and it's one worth paying attention to.
The VAT cut: good news, with a catch
On his second day as Prime Minister, Burnham announced he was scrapping the 5% VAT on domestic electricity bills from this October, framing it as part of a wider package to ease cost-of-living pressure on families. For households charging an EV on their own driveway, that's a real saving on top of the fuel-cost benefits EVs already offer.
The catch, and it's the one that matters most to us, is that the move widens rather than narrows the gap between home charging and on-street public charging, which remains subject to the standard 20% VAT rate. As it stands, drivers without off-street parking still have no choice but to pay four times the tax rate on exactly the same electricity as those with a driveway.
Our own CEO, John Lewis, put it plainly:
While Burnham's VAT cut is a welcome move for home charging, it risks entrenching an unfair split, since drivers who rely on public charging, often precisely because they don't have a driveway, will still pay the higher rate for the same power.
We're not alone in flagging this. Electric Vehicles UK has warned:
The policy entrenches one of the biggest inequalities in the UK's EV transition, and Birmingham Business School's Professor David Bailey has gone as far as calling VAT on public charging a "tax on circumstance," urging government to end the charging tax divide for good.
A live legal fight in the background
Adding intrigue, a tribunal ruling earlier this year found that not-for-profit charge point operator Charge My Street should qualify for the lower 5% VAT rate on its on-street chargers, a decision HMRC is now appealing rather than accepting. How that plays out could shape whether Burnham's government eventually equalises the two rates, or leaves the divide in place.
The bigger question: will the ZEV mandate survive?
The ZEV mandate, which requires manufacturers to sell a rising share of electric cars every year through to 2030, is where the real pressure is building. The car industry has been lobbying hard for the rules to be loosened, and it's starting to show up in real investment decisions.
Mike Hawes, Chief Executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, says:
Manufacturers with existing UK plants are sitting on decisions about new models, waiting to see whether the mandate gets eased before they commit. As he put it, firms are "waiting for the mandate" before resolving investment decisions on their next generation of vehicles.
The Guardian reports that Jonathan Reynolds, back as business secretary under Burnham, has already signalled that a softening of the mandate is likely.
If that happens, it would mark the clearest EV policy shift of the Burnham government so far, and one with far bigger implications for the pace of the UK's EV transition than the VAT change alone.
What we'll be watching
Burnham's premiership is only weeks old, and beyond the VAT move, he's given few concrete signals on the bigger EV questions — the ZEV mandate, the incoming pay-per-mile tax, or support for on-street charging infrastructure.
As the mandate decision and the UK's kerbside charging debate both continue to unfold, we'll keep tracking what it means for the millions of drivers who charge on the street, not the driveway — because that fairness gap is exactly the problem char.gy exists to help close.