{"id":813664,"date":"2026-10-25T18:06:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/813664\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T18:06:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:06:13","slug":"andy-burnhams-vat-reduction-on-electricity-gives-2060-boost-to-some-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/813664\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham&#8217;s VAT reduction on electricity gives \u2018\u00a32,060 boost&#8217; to some drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-ylk=\"elmt:article-inline-link;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/andy-burnham\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Burnham&#8217;s<\/a> new <a data-ylk=\"elmt:article-inline-link;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/driveway\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">driveway<\/a> rule changes introduced this October will give a reduction in costs to some drivers, according to new analysis. The Prime Minister slashed VAT rates on domestic electricity on October 1, with <a data-ylk=\"elmt:article-inline-link;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/life-style\/cars\/2256849\/andy-burnham-driveway-rule-changes\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">rates cut from 5% to 0%<\/a>. Although aimed at cutting electricity bills, the new update will have a knock-on effect for anyone charging their <a data-ylk=\"elmt:article-inline-link;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/electric-cars\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">electric car<\/a> at home.<\/p>\n<p>Those topping up on their driveway are likely paying just 7p per kWh due to the lower VAT rates, <a data-ylk=\"elmt:article-inline-link;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/life-style\/cars\/2258758\/andy-burnham-driveway-rule-electric-car\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">around 2p per mile<\/a>. However, the same can&#8217;t be said for the millions of road users without access to off-street parking.<\/p>\n<p>Many of these are still relying on public charging bays to top-up tier cars despite VAT at 20% and rates closer to 50p per kWh. There had been pressure from the car industry to bring public charging rates into line with domestic rates, but what Mr Burnham did was actually extend the so-called &#8220;driveway divide&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>New analysis from <a data-ylk=\"elmt:article-inline-link;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.costpermile.co.uk\/guides\/uk-ev-charging-vat-inequity-driveway-divide\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">costpermile.co.uk<\/a> found that a homeowner topping-up at home using a smart charging tariff would pay around \u00a3200 per year in electricity fees. Meanwhile, those relying on rapid chargers in the community would be splashing out over \u00a32,200 per annum.<\/p>\n<p>Experts at <a data-ylk=\"elmt:article-inline-link;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.costpermile.co.uk\/guides\/uk-ev-charging-vat-inequity-driveway-divide\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">costpermile.co.uk<\/a> said: &#8220;A homeowner with a driveway charging their EV overnight spends just \u00a3200 annually in electricity. A terraced-home dweller who drives the exact same 10,000 miles but relies on public rapid chargers spends \u00a32,260 annually &#8211; paying an extra \u00a32,060 every year simply because they park on the road.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/suburban-houses-with-cars-parked-on-driveway-pinner-london-uk-7196772.jpg\"><img alt=\"Suburban houses with cars parked on driveway, Pinner, London, UK\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"820\" height=\"547\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img w-full w-full h-auto\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/suburban-houses-with-cars-parked-on-driveway-pinner-london-uk-7196772.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Driveway VAT fees changed from October 1 (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n<p>Hippo Leasing has also warned that Mr Burnham&#8217;s decision to cut domestic VAT instead of tackling the 20% VAT fees could <a data-ylk=\"elmt:article-inline-link;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/life-style\/cars\/2254738\/andy-burnham-driveway-vat-charging\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">cost some drivers hundreds of pounds.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tom Preston, Chief Executive Officer at Hippo Leasing previously warned that the current 20% VAT rate on public EV charging costs effectively &#8220;penalises motorists who don&#8217;t have a driveway&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Tom added: &#8220;Equalising public charging VAT with the 5% domestic rate could save high-mileage EV drivers around \u00a3389 a year, making electric leasing far more accessible for urban households.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, the Government has stressed that the VAT tax cut will help households with their energy bills, taking around \u00a345 off the yearly Ofgem price cap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham&#8217;s new driveway rule changes introduced this October will give a reduction in costs to some drivers,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-813664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}