Batangas City grants tax breaks to EV charging station operators
By Saghir Hussain ·
Batangas City has just handed EV charging operators a tax holiday — and it exposes how far behind the UK is on turning rhetoric into chargers on the ground.
A local council moves faster than Whitehall
The Batangas City Council voted this week to exempt all establishments constructing and operating EV charging stations from real property taxes and local business taxes. The measure, reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, applies immediately and covers both the land and the equipment. No central government sign-off required. A city of 350,000 people just gave the private sector a clear signal: build here, now.
In the UK, the Department for Transport’s Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) fund — £381 million announced in 2022 — is still being allocated. Councils bid for slices. Private operators navigate planning, grid connections, and business rates that treat a charger like a commercial property. The ZEV mandate demands 22% of new car sales be zero-emission this year, rising to 80% by 2030. Yet the public charging network grows at roughly 1,200 devices a month — nowhere near the 300,000 the Climate Change Committee says we need by 2030.
Business rates vs. building rates
British charging firms — Pod Point, BP Pulse, Osprey, Gridserve — have long argued that business rates discourage rollout. A rapid charger can attract a rateable value of £15,000–£20,000 a year. In Batangas, that bill is now zero. The Philippine move is blunt: no rates, no permits delay, no central government bottleneck. It’s a single-page ordinance.
The UK government consulted on business rates reform for EV chargers in 2023. A relief scheme was promised. As of this morning, nothing has been legislated. The Autumn Statement offered a 75% retail, hospitality and leisure relief — but charging hubs on industrial estates or motorway services often fall outside it. Operators tell Crawlio they’re still paying full whack.
What this means for British workers and firms
The UK’s EV strategy leans on private capital. But capital follows certainty. When a Philippine city can offer a cleaner fiscal signal than a G7 economy, British firms expanding in Southeast Asia take note. Some already are. British-backed charging joint ventures are scouting Philippine sites — lower build costs, faster permitting, now zero local tax.
Back home, the installer on a zero-hours contract in Stoke or the grid engineer in Glasgow sees none of that advantage. They see planning delays, DNO queues, and a Treasury that treats green infrastructure as a revenue line. The Batangas ordinance won’t solve the UK’s charging gap. But it should shame the ministers who keep saying “world-leading” while the basics — rates, planning, grid — stay stuck in neutral.
If a city in the Philippines can clear the decks for chargers in one council meeting, why can’t Westminster?