Shake-up will help UK motorists without driveways to charge EVs
Households without off-street parking could soon be able to charge their electric vehicles from home under new government plans to help households cut their need for expensive fossil fuels.The government has promised to pass legislation this summer that will allow motorists to run power cables through a charging “gully” built into the pavement outside their home without the need for planning permission.This means that before the end of this year, EV owners who are not able to fit their own car chargers at home will be able to charge up from the power connection indoors.Motorists are not allowed to string charging cables across the pavement from their home but almost half of councils across the UK allow cross-pavement charging if you embed the cable in a gully.However, this still requires permission from the council.
Charging at home is usually much cheaper than using public car charge points, meaning more motorists may be willing to trade in their petrol and diesel cars for an electric alternative if they know they can access cheaper electricity more easily.This is partly because public charging has a VAT rate of 20% while home energy includes VAT at 5%.ChargeUK, the trade body for the charging industry, said equalising VAT would help ensure that motorists who cannot charge at home even after the planning changes would not be unfairly penalised.The legislation is part of a string of measures to help protect households from the soaring cost of energy since the Middle East war disrupted supplies of crude, gas and fuels from the Gulf.Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, said the “overwhelming lesson of this crisis is we need to go faster” on the government’s plans to reduce the UK’s reliance on volatile fossil fuel markets.
“Because every solar panel we put up, every wind turbine we build, every heat pump we install, every EV on the road makes our country more secure,” he told the Good Growth Foundation’s National Growth Debate on Tuesday.The government has also promised to make it easier to install solar panels and heat pumps.This summer it will consult on changes to permitted development rights to make it easier to install air source heat pumps, particularly in flats, and on plans for low-income households to benefit from plug-in solar through the Warm Homes Plan.Demand for solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps has leapt since the war began as households brace for a sharp increase in monthly energy bills when the next energy price cap takes effect in the summer.Octopus Energy, the country’s biggest energy supplier, said its heat pump orders had more than doubled in March compared with February, while sales of solar power systems were up by almost 80%.
The supplier said new leases of electric vehicles rose by more than 85% over the same period,In a boost to EV sales, the price of battery electric cars has fallen below petrol cars in the UK for the first time, according to the car sales website Autotrader,
Yes, retail investment needs a boost – but the squirrel looks too tame | Nils Pratley
Red squirrel characters have a history in the public information game. Older UK readers may recall Tufty, who taught children about road safety in the 1970s. His chum, Willy Weasel, regularly got knocked down by passing cars but clever Tufty always remembered to look both ways.Now comes Savvy Squirrel, who, with backing from the chancellor and a multi-year lump of advertising spend from the financial services industry, will try “to drive a step-change in how investing is understood, discussed and adopted”, as the blurb puts it. In translation: don’t squirrel everything away in a boring cash Isa but try taking an investment risk or two if you value your long-term financial health
Capital gains tax changes are on the table, and yet Armageddon has not arrived. Has the tide on housing turned at last? | Greg Jericho
A funny thing happened on the way to the budget: changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing, which had for years been a no-go zone, are now looking likely.One of the first times I wrote about negative gearing was in 2015 when I covered the then treasurer Joe Hockey appearing on Q+A. He said negative gearing was needed because when the Hawke government scrapped it in the 1980s rental prices rose.He was wrong (and to be honest, this was not unusual – a lot of my columns back then involved arguing Joe Hockey was wrong). While rental price growth went up in Sydney and Perth, it didn’t in Melbourne, Brisbane or Adelaide
Tesla reports mixed financial results as Musk pivots automaker to AI and robots
Tesla reported its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, disclosing some better-than-expected results but faltering in some key areas. The report failed to significantly buoy Tesla’s stock, which has limped along this year while its CEO, Elon Musk, has tried to sell the company’s new vision of humanoid robots and self-driving robotaxis. Its core car business has struggled in the face of competition from Chinese counterparts and backlash against his close involvement with the Trump administration.“There remains significant effort and hard work to realize our mission of Amazing Abundance,” Tesla said in its report, while claiming that demand for its vehicles was rebounding.Tesla revealed earnings of 41 cents a share on Wednesday after market close, more than the 37 cents per share that Wall Street expected
What is Mythos AI and why could it be a threat to global cybersecurity?
Anthropic has ruled out releasing its latest AI model, Mythos, to the public because of the threat it poses to global cybersecurity.However, the US tech startup behind the Claude chatbot confirmed on Wednesday it was investigating a report that a group of people had gained unauthorised access to Mythos. The alleged incident has raised concerns over the pace of development and the ability of tech companies to keep their riskiest products out of the public domain. Here, we examine Mythos and its potential impact.Mythos is an AI model – the underlying technology that powers tools such as chatbots – that, according to Anthropic, represents a serious potential threat to any organisation’s cybersecurity
Carlton coach Michael Voss accuses media of bullying after Elijah Hollands incident
Embattled Carlton coach Michael Voss has defended his staff and accused the media of bullying as the spotlight intensifies on the club for allowing Elijah Hollands to play last week during a mental health episode.Hollands behaved erratically in the match against Collingwood and is now in hospital, and speculation has focused on how Voss’s staff had allowed the young player to take the field given his struggles were obvious even from the stands.Fronting a large press pack on Thursday at Princes Park ahead of Saturday’s match against Fremantle, Voss said he wanted to respect the AFL’s investigation into the club’s actions on the night and “we accept that we need to look at process”.But he said that in a “complex situation that has history and background” his staff deserve praise.“I’m proud of my people, and the process itself will take care of itself, and we need to put our support behind that,” he said
Bournemouth 2-2 Leeds, Charlton 1-2 Ipswich: football clockwatch – as it happened
Time to sign off; I’ll leave you with Sam Cunningham’s match report from the Vitality Stadium. Thanks for joining me.Jamie Jackson watched as Manchester City won at Burnley to go top of the league …Ed Aarons was at the Valley to see Ipswich dig out a vital win:Championship table: Ipswich edge back into second place but Millwall, Southampton and Middlesbrough can all still claim automatic promotion. Oxford are not quite down after Charlton failed to take a point from their game tonight.Premier League table: Manchester City are top on goals scored, Bournemouth climb above Chelsea, and Burnley are relegated
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