Additional funding of £2.5m to provide more charge points for electric vehicles (EVs) has been announced by the transport secretary Grant Shapps.

The funding will support the on-street residential chargepoint scheme, launched in 2017, which helps people access charging infrastructure near their homes when they don’t have off-street parking.

It will be used to help local authorities to install these chargepoints, which can be built into existing structures such as lamp-posts.

The scheme aims to encourage more people to choose an EV by making it easier to charge their cars near home.

The scheme has already seen 16 local authorities prepared to install 1,200 chargepoints this year. The transport secretary is now doubling funding for the scheme.

Shapps said: “It’s fantastic that there are now more than 20,000 publicly accessible chargepoints and double the number of electric vehicle chargepoints than petrol stations, but we want to do much more.

“It’s vital that electric vehicle drivers feel confident about the availability of chargepoints near their homes, and that charging an electric car is seen as easy as plugging in a smartphone.

“That’s why we are now doubling the funding available for local authorities to continue building the infrastructure we need to super-charge the zero-emission revolution – right across the country.”