Part S Building Regulations Are Failing UK Developers (And EV Adoption)
Part S Building Regulations: Part 1 of 3
Part S has been in effect for over two years now. In this three-part series, we examine what's working, what's failing, and what developers can do about it.
Part 1: What's failing with Part S regulations (and why 30% of compliant installations don't work)
Part 2: Our proposals to the statutory review - specific changes that would help
Part 3: Practical strategies developers can use today (without waiting for regulatory reform)
If you need a breakdown of what the regulation actually requires, we've written a practical Part S compliance guide. This blog is about what's failing despite compliance with those requirements.
When Part S Building Regulations launched with the promise of accelerating EV infrastructure in new builds, we were cautiously optimistic. Finally, clear standards, mandatory provision and a level playing field.
Two years later and the results tell a different story.
We've surveyed over 100 new build developments across the UK. What we found should concern everyone invested in the UK's net-zero ambitions. Roughly 30% of supposedly compliant Part S installations don't work properly. They can't bill residents. They won't scale when needed. Or they've trapped property managers in expensive, poorly functioning systems.
What Part S Gets Wrong
Part S guidance had the right intent - 100% provision for residential developments with parking. But ended up being a long and winding 47 page document that created almost as much confusion as it did clarity.
So what’s missing?
Software standards: Part S tells you the chargers must comply with Smart Charging Regulations. It doesn't tell you that the backend management system needs to handle billing, maintenance ticketing, load balancing, or future tariff integration. The result is thousands of "smart" chargers that can't bill residents, can't be maintained remotely, and can't adapt to time-of-use tariffs.
Installation methodology: The regulations reference "cable routes" and "passive provision" but provide no meaningful guidance. We've reviewed dozens of developments where passive provision is effectively useless, or (our personal favourite) not even marked on any building drawings.
Ongoing management frameworks: Part S mandates that you install the infrastructure. It's completely silent on who manages it, maintains it, pays for energy, supports residents, and handles the inevitable hardware failures. For shared parking in flats and apartments, this is an unmitigated disaster. Property managers are drowning in complexity they never signed up for, service charges are ballooning, and non-EV residents are (quite reasonably) furious about subsidising infrastructure they don't use.
The Underground Car Park Problem
The most bizarre exemption in the regulations: underground car parks are exempt from active EV provision but still require passive provision and cable routes.
This shows a lack of leadership for policy makers who have been slow to address perceived and real risks relating to EVs parking in confined spaces. Rather than create high standards and clarity, exempting active chargers in favour of poorly defined passive infrastructure adds cost for developers whilst removing benefit for residents. Underground car parks are most common in urban centres, high-density housing where air quality is often worse. Places where EV charging is most needed.
The exemption exists because of fire safety and ventilation concerns. Fair. But the response should be guidance on how to do it safely, not a free pass to skip it entirely. Underground car parks should be the first priority for EV infrastructure. The regulations got this backwards. Behind the scenes in Government it is accepted that this is a challenge and we’re aware teams are looking into changes. Seemingly for now however it is a policy area that is currently on the ‘too hard’ pile.
Why This Matters
The UK wants 300,000 public chargers by 2030. Ban on new petrol/diesel cars from 2035. Net-zero by 2050. Home charging is the foundation. You wouldn't hand over a new development with heating systems that have no service contract. You wouldn't install broadband infrastructure with no ISP arrangement. Why do we think EV charging infrastructure is any different?
The industry has spent two years quietly absorbing Part S costs and complexity, hoping someone else solves the problems. That's not working. We need an honest conversation about what's broken and what needs fixing. Right now, we're building infrastructure that satisfies regulations but doesn't satisfy customers nor our collective environmental ambitions. That's not sustainable.
What's your experience with Part S? Let us know.
Next up: Part 2 details our specific proposals to the Part S review - including some that won't be popular.
