Part S Regulations: 3 Years On

What are the Part S regulations?

Approved Document Part S of Schedule 1 — more commonly known as Part S — is an update to the Building Regulations 2010, which govern overall construction in the UK. These regulations aim to protect the health and welfare of workers and building occupants, while also ensuring safe building practices that demonstrate efficiency and sustainability.

Back in 2010, when the regulations were originally published, EVs were barely a blip on developers’ radars — just 261 EVs were sold in the UK that year.

By 2022, the landscape had changed considerably: over 600,000 were sold that year alone and EVs accounted for around 2% of the UK's overall car parc. A clear path for continued growth was emerging, supported by wider policy decisions — such as the ban on new petrol and diesel vehicle sales by 2030.

As a key part of the EV transition’s success lies in the hands of the construction industry, Part S set out to help developers, architects, and landowners design buildings with proper consideration for the increasing demand for EVs and the need to charge them.

You can view the full document on the government website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/infrastructure-for-charging-electric-vehicles-approved-document-s

What specifically did it do for EV charging?

Quite a lot, actually. Part S covered both new builds and buildings undergoing major reburbishment, across both residential and non-residential environments.

With such a broad scope of construction projects included, but a defined purpose focused solely on EV charging infrastructure, this was a landmark policy document for the industry.

Without going into every nuance of the regulation, the key headlines were:

• Every newly built domestic property must have an active charge point installed.

  
  

• In refurbished domestic buildings with 10 or more parking bays, every dwelling must have an active charge point, and all other bays given the capacity to install one.

  
  

• Commercial sites (new and refurbished) over 10 bays need at least 1 active charge point installed and 20% of remaining bays made ready for future charging point installation.

As you can see, this meant EV charging became an important component of all building plans, with a knock-on impact for the provision of additional power, supporting switchgear, cabling, ducting, earthing, bay design and everything else which comes with it.

EV charging is now a building design consideration

And what has actually been achieved?

You may well have seen evidence on this in action - newly built developments appearing near you with shiny chargepoints mounted to their walls. The expectation was for England alone to see an additional 145,000 chargers installed per year as a result of this regulatory change.

It’s well documented that UK homebuilding is currently behind target. However, as the scope of Part S reaches beyond just new-build homes this should not have dramatically affected the overall number of chargers installed. Inevitably, some ramp-up time was needed as existing projects worked their way through the pipeline without charging infrastructure (and allowances were made for this in the regulation), but we are now in a period where Part S will have been in 'full swing' for some time for newly finished projects.

What issues has it faced? Perceived fire risk has been an added complexity for Part S, particularly as an exemption was granted for projects in covered car parks. The exemption meant that no active charge points are required to be installed in these areas, but cabling and capacity should be provided.

Sadly, this exemption has more acutely hampered those who typically find it harder to make the transition to electric vehicles as it includes those who do not have a private off-street parking bay attached to their property and may be in more affordable housing blocks.

This point is well covered by our friends over at Rapid Charge Paradox where you can read their detailed blog at the link.

Whilst there is a genuine need for competent fire risk inspection to be undertaken in these areas - which might involve more detailed recommendations around topics such as ventilation and fire spread mitigation - these inspections are something which should be undertaken regardless of the charging environment. The inclusion of an exemption has perpetuated the myth that they are not suitable for EV charging at all. With the evidence pointing toward traditionally fuelled vehicles being statistically more likely to combust than their electrified counterparts there are growing calls for this unhelpful exemption to be removed.

You can see what Safer Charging offers to support with competent fire risk inspection here.

In the commercial sector, the picture is also complex. With Part S only requiring a single active charge point this has led to some differences in opinion on site design and who is responsible for additional active chargers.

Whilst most large-scale projects — like delivery warehouses — already have greater numbers of active charge points in designs with electric fleets in mind, general workplaces and office developments tend to be more hesitant to plan active charge points at scale.

When you consider factors like tenant use cases, metering, and ongoing operational responsibilities, it’s clearer why the expansion of charging is often left to tenants and property managers to decide after handover.

If you're reading this thinking 'that's exactly our situation', you're not alone - and chances are we've helped others in the same position. Feel free to book in a short call to discuss with us here.

Ok, and what next?

In short, lots more charge points! This does mean there is increasing need for those who are adopting sites to have good understanding of their options — both for the active chargers they are adopting and the expansion. We'll cover these points and some common questions around the opportunities available to individuals and businesses in our Training & Resource Hub, click the link to sign up and find out more.

As we're now 3 years on from chargers being installed as a result of Part S regulations there is a strong chance many of those earlier installs are coming toward the end of their manufacturer warranty period. Regardless of whether these chargers have been used heavily or not site owners may find they are no longer covered for support if things go wrong. In addition, these charge points should be serviced annually — in commercial environments — to ensure they remain in peak condition.

Luckily, Safer Charging can assist in both scenarios, offering maintenance, servicing and operating contracts designed to suit the needs of the site. This guide on what to do with existing charge point installs will provide some interesting further reading if you find yourself in this position.

Conclusion

At the time of writing, no official figures have been published by the government or other sources on the number of chargers delivered as a result of Part S. Whilst anecdotal evidence suggests Part S has enabled the installation of large numbers of EV chargers across the UK, whether that scale of delivery matches up to the ambitions of 145,000 per year (in England alone) remains to be seen.

However, our view is that measuring the success of Part S purely by how many sockets were installed misses the bigger point.

The success of Part S is in fundamentally shifting how we approach construction in the UK. EV chargers are now on the minds of everyone involved in the early RIBA stages of design — from developers to architects to engineers. Charging infrastructure is no longer an afterthought; it’s an integral part of the planning process. This is the big win from Part S.

The ripple effects are that even if chargers installed aren't actively used from day 1 — for example, a new homeowner doesn't yet have an EV — the fact of seeing a charge point every day keeps the technology front of mind. This is about removing perceived barriers to adoption and the long-term utility this provides homeowners or commercial decisions maker is considerable.

Thanks for reading!

Chris Cheetham

Founder, CEO & Chief of Regulatory Bedtime Reading