Can your pub be paid to host EV chargers, or does hosting cost you?

Your pub or shop can receive rent or a share if an operator offers funded hosting. Free installation alone does not establish who pays electricity, repairs or removal. A published £1,400–£2,500 workplace charger range [S1] is cost context, not your hosting offer. Check the annual host payment against every retained cost before signing. Checked October 2026.

Last checked 17 October 2026

Can your pub be paid to host chargers, or does hosting cost you?

Your pub, shop or small visitor site can be paid fixed rent or a share under an agreed hosting offer. The answer for your business is the payment minus the costs you retain. A free-to-install proposal can still leave you paying electricity, maintaining the surrounding car park or funding reinstatement.

Start by asking for a written list of everything the operator funds. Lease guidance warns that a host using its existing electricity supply needs an effective reimbursement provision [S3]. A charger paid for by somebody else does not make its energy free.

Read fully funded charging explained and funded installation versus buying. Fully funded means the operator funds and operates the charging equipment; identify any host works separately. Part funded shares capital. Self funded means you invest and retain income after costs. Ask what yearly host income, return on investment and payback the actual proposal supports.

Which installation and operating costs can remain with your site?

Request a responsibility schedule alongside the price. Include exclusions, a named payer and the evidence needed before work starts. The cost guides distinguish equipment from infrastructure; an installed headline price can leave important work outside the scope [S1], [S2].

Ask your insurer for the cover position and your solicitor to check the obligations. Lease guidance highlights insurance allocation, damage-related rent suspension and reinstatement [S3]. For parking loss, use your own records: lost parking receipts and lost shop profit are different measures. Do not count the same displaced visit twice.

For England, dedicated charging rates relief applies to qualifying separately assessed properties; it does not automatically remove a pub’s wider bill [S4]. Check your nation’s rules and your assessment. Use business rates on charge points and check with your accountant.

How much could a small charger earn after those costs?

Public charging attracts standard-rate VAT [S6]; the standard rate is 20% [S7].

This is an illustration, not a quote. All usage, prices, shares and operating costs below are assumptions. A kilowatt (kW) measures power; a kilowatt hour (kWh) measures energy. AC means alternating current. No additional pub or shop sales are assumed.

The site-works allowance assumes an adequate existing supply, not a new supply upgrade. Larger layouts need a different budget. As cost context, a published range for 5–10 workplace chargers is £1,200–£2,000 each plus £3,000–£8,000 shared infrastructure. Groundworks, cable runs and connection remain extra and need itemising [S1], [S2]. These commercial guides are not official price schedules.

Annual energy = sessions/day × 10 × 365. Receipts = energy × £0.40. Operating surplus = energy × (£0.40 − £0.25) − £300. Fully funded assumes the operator pays those charging costs, so host income = receipts × 10%.

ROI = annual host net income ÷ host capital × 100. Payback = host capital ÷ positive annual net income. With the total capital range, self funded middle-use payback is about 11.7–16.2 years; high-use payback is 3.6–5.0 years. These are simple calculations, not equipment-life predictions. Results exclude financing, tax, replacement capital, unresolved rates, insurance, parking loss and removal. Add actual retained costs to the annual or capital line before deciding. VAT recovery is assumed; check with your accountant.

Could a free installation leave you losing money?

Yes, under adverse contract assumptions. In the middle-use illustration, the host receives £146/year. If the host instead pays the modelled £912.50 electricity without reimbursement, its cash result becomes £146 − £912.50 = −£766.50 before other host costs. This is a contract sensitivity, not an expected offer. Require explicit energy reimbursement before calling that proposal fully funded.

Likewise, reserve for end-of-term costs using an actual scope. An assumed removal budget divided by the years you expect to hold the agreement gives an annual reserve, but does not establish the eventual bill. Keep that reserve separate from a contractually funded removal obligation.

What should the agreement say about lock-in and downtime?

Ask your solicitor to check the term, exclusivity, relocation, redevelopment and exit charges. Require written answers on unused bays, abandoned equipment, insolvency and who pays to restore the site. Read contract lock-in and exit.

For public operation, ask who supplies the required staffed telephone support [S5]. Separately request a site repair response, reporting route and host-payment rule during outages. A regulatory network measure is not your site’s maintenance agreement.

What should you do next?

Start with guides, run the site check and enter your assumptions in income and payback. Review the driver price using charging cost and the energy input against business electricity data. Explore cut energy costs if electricity exposure drives the decision. Then get matched with an installer that covers your area.

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