What does Building Regulations Part S mean for your business?

Part S concerns charging infrastructure for specified building work in England. For a new non-residential building with more than 10 parking spaces, the starting requirement is a chargepoint plus cable routes, subject to the detailed conditions [S1]. Establish your building-control obligations before requesting grant funding or comparing charging proposals. Checked October 2026.

Last checked 16 October 2026

Does Part S apply to your business premises?

Start with your building project and its location. England’s Approved Document S covers specified new buildings, major renovations, residential conversions and mixed-use projects. It is guidance supporting the Building Regulations, rather than a general instruction to fit chargers to every business car park [S4].

Prepare a short brief for your designer: what you are building, which parking serves it, what electrical work is planned and whether parking is covered. Ask for a written applicability assessment before agreeing a charger package. This guide explains the framework; check the interpretation for your project with your building-control body and solicitor.

Keep the commercial proposal separate from the compliance schedule. You may want more charging than your building project requires, but the quote should distinguish the required provision from your optional expansion. That distinction helps you assess scope, funding and responsibility without relying on a salesperson’s description.

How many chargers and cable routes does a new commercial building need?

For a new non-residential building with more than 10 parking spaces within its boundary, the normal starting point is a chargepoint and cable routes to at least a fifth of the remaining spaces. Covered parking has separate provisions [S1]. Ask your designer to show the calculation on the parking plan.

Use this comparison when reviewing a proposal:

Avoid approving a description such as “EV ready” without a drawing. Ask whether it means an operating charger, installed cable, empty ducting or only an intention to leave room later. Those descriptions can represent different amounts of work and very different handover information.

Do existing car parks need upgrading during a renovation?

A major renovation can trigger provision where relevant car-park or electrical works are included. The detailed conditions matter: a refurbishment should not be assessed solely by counting parking bays. The document includes a cost test for major renovations, with cable-route provision considered separately where charging exceeds that test [S1].

Ask your designer to record the renovation scope, applicable requirement and supporting cost calculation. Request an explanation of any exemption in the same pack. Do this before removing items from the contractor’s schedule. A verbal statement that the work is “too expensive” leaves you without a clear basis for that decision.

For an existing site with no relevant building project, ask a narrower question: what requires charging here? The answer may involve your development’s own planning conditions or another obligation. Have your adviser check the actual paperwork. Use the planning guide to prepare that conversation, while keeping the building-control assessment in its own file.

What counts as a usable cable route?

The official FAQs distinguish cable routes from installed charging equipment and discuss practical installation arrangements [S2]. Your specification should make the future installation understandable to someone who did not attend the design meetings.

Ask the contractor to mark the route from the intended electrical supply to the future charging position. Request details of access points, buried sections and any obstruction that could make later work difficult. Include photographs before trenches are closed and a drawing showing the completed arrangement in your handover request.

Read cable runs and groundworks before comparing prices. Ask whether excavation, reinstatement and future access are included. A cheaper equipment line can obscure a substantial difference in the work allowed for around it.

What about covered parking, access and electrical capacity?

The official FAQs discuss covered-car-park exemptions and their limits [S2]. Do not assume that a roof removes every infrastructure obligation. Have your designer identify the relevant treatment on the plan and confirm it with building control.

Bring the people responsible for parking, access and electrical design into the same review. Request a plan that shows walking routes, equipment positions and how cables will be handled. Compare it with your operational needs: deliveries, accessible arrival, customer turnover and staff parking. Record the decisions before the layout is priced.

A kilowatt (kW) measures power. Ask your electrician for a proposed charging load and an assessment of available supply capacity. Where network input is needed, involve the distribution network operator (DNO), which manages the local electricity network. The DNO application guide helps you assemble the information for that discussion.

Can mandatory Part S installations receive WCS funding?

WCS applicant guidance excludes installations where chargepoints or infrastructure are mandatory, expressly including relevant Part S projects [S3]. Do not subtract a grant from the compliance budget merely because your organisation would otherwise qualify.

Ask the installer to itemise mandatory work and any proposed additional installation. Obtain a scheme eligibility decision for uncertain scope before authorising it. The WCS changes guide explains the application sequence. A building-control decision and a funding decision answer different questions.

What should you do next?

Collect the parking plan, building-work description, supply information and proposed compliance schedule. Ask for an itemised installation proposal with responsibility for approvals and handover evidence stated clearly. Then get matched with an installer that covers your area.

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