EV charging in St Helens: cars, public chargers and charging at home

St Helens Borough Council covers St Helens among the towns we work in. At the end of June 2026 the DfT counted 3,987 privately kept plug-in cars licensed in St Helens, up from 2,411 a year earlier: about 65% more in twelve months. 2,551 of them are fully battery electric and the rest plug-in hybrids.

Public chargers in St Helens

On 1 July 2026 there were 135 public chargers across St Helens, 75 of them rapid chargers of 50 kW or more: about 72 for every 100,000 people. By constituency, the counts around the towns we cover were:

• St Helens South and Whiston: 100 public chargers (58 at 50 kW or more), against 110 on 1 January 2026

Public chargers are what make a long journey work. The charging that sets the running cost is the overnight kind, on your own drive, on a tariff with a cheap night window: our guide to Intelligent Octopus Go with a home charger explains how that works.

Who can charge at home in St Helens

Off-street parking is the deciding factor, and the Census does not count driveways. What it does count is the kind of home: around the centres of the towns we cover here, in 2021,

• St Helens: 90% of households in a house (10% detached, 46% semi-detached), 10% in a flat, and 73% with a car or van

A detached or semi-detached house is where a drive, and a home charger, is most likely. A flat with its own allocated space can have one too, and that is who the government grant is for.

Planning for a home charger in St Helens

In England a wall-mounted charging outlet in an area used for off-street parking is permitted development, as long as the house is not listed and the spot is not a scheduled monument; the old rule keeping it 2 metres back from a road was removed in May 2025.

From 21 October 2026 a wall charger can also go anywhere within the curtilage of a house or a block of flats as permitted development: no higher than 1.6 metres, one outlet per curtilage, sticking out no more than 0.2 metres, with 1.5 metres of footway left clear, and with an authorised cross-pavement solution for any cable over a footway. On that new route it is not permitted development in a conservation area.

St Helens has eight conservation areas. The council publishes an appraisal for each area and copies of its Article 4 Directions. Check an address on St Helens Borough Council’s conservation-area page; our solar planning guide for St Helens lists the areas it names.

The whole picture, England and Wales side by side: do you need planning permission for an EV charger?

What the charger itself has to do

Since the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021, a home charger has to be smart: it comes with default charging hours set outside the weekday peaks (8 to 11 in the morning and 4 to 10 in the evening), the owner can override them, and it applies a random delay of up to ten minutes to each charge. A 22 kW charger needs a three-phase supply and most UK homes are single phase, so a home charger is normally 7 kW or so; Hypervolt publishes its Home 3 Pro at 7.4 kW single phase.

A home charger is notified to the network operator. Under the Energy Networks Association’s connect-and-notify process, where the home’s maximum demand stays at 60 amps per phase or less the charger is fitted first and notified within 28 days; above that, the operator is asked first. We send the notification for you.

Grants

There is no government grant for a charger at a house you own. The EV chargepoint grant is for people who rent, or who own and live in a flat, with private off-street parking: it pays 75% of buying and installing a socket up to a cap set by the government, until 31 March 2027, and only through an installer OZEV has authorised. Who qualifies, and what the grant pays: EV charger grants in 2026.

Charging from the roof in St Helens

A south-facing roof in St Helens makes about 939 kWh a year for every kWp of panels by the PVGIS model, most of it between May and July. A solar-aware charger such as the Hypervolt Home 3 Pro can put that surplus into the car instead of exporting it: charging an EV from your own solar explains how the charger and the panels share it, and Hypervolt installation across Merseyside & Wirral covers the charger we fit.