Springfield Properties has announced it is installing cabling for electric car charging points in all of its future new-build properties.

The developer said it will incorporate 7KW cabling to the most practical point in future homes, allowing homebuyers to easily install a home charge point.

The first residents to benefit from the green initiative will be at Bertha Park, the 3,000-home community planned for the outskirts of Perth. Springfield Properties said the site is ideally located to the A9 where the Scottish Government plans to create Scotland's first Electric Highway, featuring charging points along its length.

Innes Smith, Chief Executive, said: "The Scottish Government has pledged that by 2032 all new vehicles sold in this country will be electric but we anticipate that the uptake will increase rapidly long before then. One of our values as a company, is to include everything a customer needs in their new home, so, with this is mind, we wanted to make it as easy as possible for our customers to go electric.


"At Springfield, exploring new ways to protect the environment has been a focus of ours for many years and installing the infrastructure for electric car charge points in our homes was the next logical step for our customers.

"Internally, we have also implemented a number of green policies across our offices, such as no longer using disposable plastic cups and installing electric car charging points at our Larbert base."

The developer is also delivering a number of other environmental measures across its projects, including offering solar photo voltaic panels as an optional extra, the installation of smart, energy efficient hybrid boilers and the use of sustainable materials in the construction of energy efficient timber-frame homes.

Humza Yousaf, Scottish Government Minister for Transport, said: "This is a welcome announcement from Springfield Properties. The ability to charge electric vehicles at home helps reduce barriers to ownership.

"With Scotland already leading the way with sales of electric and alternative fuelled vehicles rising faster than the rest of the UK, this is another positive step by industry in support of our vision to phase out the need for new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2032."

(LM)