Pavement charging gullies: report signals possible legislation

A report shared by The Press and Journal points to potential legislation allowing drivers to run electric vehicle charging cables through specially designed pavement “gullies”. However, the available source does not establish when any change would take effect, where it would apply or what permissions drivers would need.

For UK drivers interested in charging a car parked outside their home, the distinction matters: a reported legislative plan is not confirmation that a particular installation is permitted.

What the report says

According to The Press and Journal’s Facebook post, the UK government is “set to introduce legislation this summer” allowing drivers to run charging cables through specially designed pavement gullies outside their homes.

The post’s headline refers to three policies being considered for electric car users. However, the available excerpt identifies only the proposed provision for charging cables. It does not provide enough information to describe the other two policies, and they should not be inferred from the headline.

The material available for this report consists of that headline and short excerpt, rather than the full underlying article or a government announcement. The proposal therefore needs to be understood within those limits.

Timing remains unclear

As at 10 September 2026, the reference to legislation being introduced “this summer” does not establish a reliable implementation timetable. The supplied material has no confirmed publication date, and it does not show whether the reported legislative step has happened.

There is also an important distinction between introducing legislation and a change becoming available for drivers to use. The excerpt provides no commencement date, application process or installation timetable.

Drivers should therefore avoid treating the post as confirmation of an immediate new entitlement. Before committing to equipment or installation work, they should seek current information about the position at their own address.

Details still missing

The source describes specially designed pavement gullies, not unrestricted permission to place a loose charging cable across a footway. That wording is important: it points to a particular type of arrangement rather than permission for any method of crossing a pavement.

Beyond that, essential details are absent. The excerpt does not identify technical standards, installation costs, responsibility for maintenance or how any proposed arrangement would interact with parking outside a property.

It also does not establish the geographical coverage of the proposed legislation. A reference to the UK government alone is not enough to conclude that identical rules would apply throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Any eventual guidance would need to be checked for its actual scope, rather than assuming a UK-wide announcement means every driver can use the same process.

Questions for drivers

For someone considering this type of charging arrangement, the practical next step is to establish what is currently possible, not to purchase a solution on the strength of the headline.

Useful questions include who can authorise work at the proposed location, what design would be accepted and who would be responsible if the installation needed repair. Drivers should also ask how the arrangement would work when the intended parking space is unavailable.

These are checks to make, not requirements confirmed by this report. Our help centre provides a starting point for questions about The Charge Scheme, but scheme information should not be treated as approval for pavement works.

What employers should do

Employers sharing this story should keep the reported proposal separate from any description of charging options already available to staff. An employee’s interest in a pavement gully does not establish that their property or parking arrangements would qualify.

For HR and people teams, the immediate task is clear communication: describe this as a reported policy development with unresolved details, rather than a guaranteed new charging option.

The key information still needed is an authoritative statement of the legislation’s status, territorial scope and practical conditions. Until that is available, neither drivers nor employers should build charging plans around an assumed start date.