Peter Emery, CEO of the region’s power network, Electricity North West, said: “We welcome the Government’s decision to fit all new homes and buildings with electric vehicle charging points from 2022.

“Our forecasts show that in the next decade there will be a million electric vehicles on the North West’s roads, compared to just 12,000 today. We’re leading the way to Net Zero by investing more than £1.6bn in the region’s power network to meet that increasing electricity demand and enable people to make the switch.

“The recent COP26 event shone a spotlight on the scale of the challenge ahead and the impact on all communities. From a North West perspective, our network is in good shape to enable people to move away from fossil fuels to low carbon electricity for transport and heating.”