Motorway Service Areas (MSAs) are critical to the UK’s decarbonisation agenda, offering nationally strategic locations for delivering high-powered electric vehicle (EV) charging, renewable energy generation, and grid-connected battery storage. With over 50 million users annually and year-round demand concentrated along the Strategic Road Network (SRN), MSAs are uniquely positioned to support equitable access to clean transport and energy infrastructure.
Roadchef welcomes the ambitions of the Clean Power 2030 mission and supports the direction of travel in the draft National Policy Statements (NPSs EN-1, EN-3, and EN-5). However, the current framework does not go far enough in recognising the role of MSAs, and risks undermining the UK’s ability to meet its Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) targets and EV charging rollout commitments.
In particular, grid capacity constraints, fragmented planning policy, and inconsistent land use decisions continue to delay or derail delivery at key sites like Killington Lake, even where proposals are fully aligned with national energy and transport goals.
To address these barriers, Roadchef recommends five targeted updates to the draft NPSs:
By adopting these recommendations, the final NPS framework can deliver a truly national EV charging network, support renewable deployment at optimal locations, and ensure that planning and grid investment unlock, not impede, the infrastructure needed for net zero.
2. EV charging infrastructure – essential for delivering Clean Power 2030
MSAs are nationally strategic infrastructure nodes at the intersection of the UK’s transport, energy, and decarbonisation agendas. With over 50 million users annually, Roadchef’s MSAs provide essential services to long-distance motorists, freight operators, and fleet vehicles. As EV uptake accelerates, MSAs are uniquely placed to support equitable access to ultra-rapid charging across the SRN, ensuring that rural and regional areas are not left behind in the transition to clean transport. MSA operators like Roadchef also have a central role to play in meeting the UK government’s ambitious targets on the roll-out of 300,000 EV chargers by 2030.
The draft National Policy Statements rightly recognise the urgent need for electricity grid expansion to support rising demand from decarbonised transport and heating (EN-1 Section 3.3; EN-5 Sections 1.1.3–1.1.6), and they identify demand-side drivers, such as EV charging infrastructure, as critical to informing future investment. However, they do not yet provide sufficient clarity on the strategic role of MSAs as pre-identified, high-priority sites for co-located charging, storage, generation, and substation infrastructure.
This omission risks undermining the broader ambitions of the Clean Power 2030 mission and Transport Decarbonisation Plan. In practice, coverage of high-powered EV charging networks at MSAs remains fragmented. On the M5, for example, no southbound ultra-rapid charging hubs exist between Gloucester Services and Michaelwood, leaving over 22 miles of a key arterial corridor without sufficient coverage. On the M1, high-powered charging at high-traffic MSAs like Trowell and Leicester Forest East are only now moving into development, despite being on one of the country’s most important freight and passenger routes.
To accelerate national progress and ensure network-wide reliability, the NPS framework should be updated to:
Such updates would align the NPS regime with the UK’s strategic needs, supporting a functioning, resilient, and geographically equitable EV charging network. Recognising MSAs as CNP infrastructure would also empower local authorities, regulators, and grid operators to coordinate early and plan proactively for developments.
The UK’s EV charging rollout will only succeed if strategic energy planning frameworks are aligned with the real-world requirements of infrastructure delivery at the local level. While national targets are important, progress ultimately depends on whether energy, transport, and land use planning systems work in concert to unlock development at the right sites, at the right time.
Roadchef strongly supports the development of the SSEP and the CSNP under the NESO. These tools have the potential to deliver precisely the kind of anticipatory grid investment and spatial coordination that the draft NPSs call for in EN-1 Section 3.3 and EN-5 Section 2.8. However, the draft NPSs lack sufficient clarity on how these national network plans will interact with local development plans, planning authority decision-making, and infrastructure funding streams. This creates a risk that the benefits of national planning are not realised where delivery is most needed.
To bridge this gap, MSAs should be explicitly identified in SSEP and CSNP documents as nationally significant energy and charging hubs. Their location on the SRN, proximity to constrained grid corridors, and role in supporting long-distance EV travel place them in a category of strategic importance that demands specific recognition.
Currently, the absence of policy alignment between NESO’s spatial strategies and the NPS regime risks delaying or deterring investment in optimal locations. Local planning authorities and DNOs often lack the clarity or mandate to prioritise MSA sites, even where grid proximity, land availability, and EV demand converge. This results in missed opportunities and avoidable delays, contrary to the objectives set out in EN-1 for enabling timely deployment of CNP infrastructure.
Chester MSA offers an illustrative case study. As part of Ofgem’s Green Recovery Fund, a 33kV substation was delivered directly adjacent to the site, enabling Roadchef to establish a high-powered EV charging hub quickly and cost-effectively. Because energy planning, funding, and local consents were aligned from the outset, the project was delivered rapidly and has since expanded with minimal delay. This type of coordination is precisely what the NPS framework should enable as standard.
To unlock this potential across the network, we recommend that:
This approach would ensure that the EV transition is supported by coherent, integrated infrastructure planning, enabling public and private sector delivery partners to act decisively in meeting the UK’s transport decarbonisation goals.
Grid availability is the single most significant barrier to EV charging deployment at MSAs. Despite their strategic role and government recognition as priority locations, many Roadchef sites continue to face unaffordable grid reinforcement costs, extended connection timelines, and opaque planning processes.
The experience at Killington Lake highlights the challenge. The original DNO quote for grid reinforcement was £10 million, rendering the project commercially unviable. While the Rapid Charging Fund (RCF) pilot would have reduced this quote to £1.2 million, the benefits went unrealised as the scheme was never made fully operational. This case is emblematic of the broader issue: inconsistent grid pricing, limited capacity visibility, and fragmented decision-making are undermining EV infrastructure delivery, even at sites already deemed essential to the transition.
While the draft National Policy Statements recognise the urgent need to expand and reinforce the grid to meet rising demand from electrified transport, they stop short of requiring proactive grid investment to enable public policy priorities like high-powered EV charging.
To unlock MSA charging at scale, EN-5 should be updated to require DNOs and transmission owners to prioritise reinforcement works where the primary outcome is enabling strategic low-carbon transport infrastructure, including EV charging. This is fully in line with EN-5’s emphasis on grid development to support "demand-side drivers" and the Clean Power 2030 mission.
Furthermore, to reduce uncertainty and accelerate private sector investment, EN-5 should mandate:
Without such changes, EV charging infrastructure at MSAs will remain a patchwork of delays, inflated costs, and lack of delivery, limiting progress toward net zero and public confidence in the EV transition.
Beyond grid constraints, many MSAs face planning delays due to restrictive land use designations, including Green Belt protections, proximity to heritage assets, and rigid landscape policies. While these frameworks serve legitimate environmental and cultural purposes, they often fail to reflect the strategic national importance of infrastructure that enables the transition to net zero.
Roadchef respects the need to protect valued landscapes and heritage. However, the current planning approach too often treats low-profile, low-impact infrastructure, such as substations or EV charging hubs, as if it were equivalent to major commercial or retail development. This disproportionate treatment creates unnecessary barriers, especially where the infrastructure in question is essential to delivering government targets for clean transport and energy security.
We recommend that EN-1 and EN-5 be updated to include an explicit presumption in favour of energy infrastructure that directly enables national decarbonisation goals, particularly where it is proposed at sites such as MSAs. This would be consistent with the NPS framework’s designation of grid infrastructure as CNP infrastructure (EN-1 Section 4.2; EN-5 Section 2.1.5) and with the national imperative to accelerate deployment of EV charging under the Clean Power 2030 mission.
To resolve current tensions between national and local policy, the NPSs should also:
Roadchef’s experience at Catterick and Selby illustrates the persistent disconnect between national infrastructure priorities and local planning processes. In both cases, planning authorities were broadly supportive in principle, yet the absence of clear national guidance in the NPSs left applications vulnerable to spurious objections. This includes questionable land designations such as the use of Green Belt status at Selby. As a result, nationally significant investments aligned with the UK’s transport and energy strategies have faced avoidable delays and uncertainty. Updating the NPSs to address this gap is essential for unlocking rapid future progress.
Without targeted updates to EN-1 and EN-5, this disconnect between national priorities and local interpretation will continue to frustrate delivery – especially at the very locations most capable of accelerating the UK’s EV transition.
6. Co-location of renewables at MSAs
As EV uptake accelerates, MSAs are increasingly exploring on-site renewable energy generation and battery storage to enhance resilience, reduce grid dependency, and support local charging demand. These integrated approaches offer substantial system benefits, including demand smoothing, reduced transmission losses, and improved local energy security. Yet the current planning framework often fails to recognise the strategic significance of grid-adjacent, high-demand sites in assessing the viability of such proposals.
In practice, planning authorities frequently place disproportionate weight on factors such as agricultural land classification or proximity to sensitive land designations, while giving insufficient consideration to grid availability, co-location benefits, and alignment with national energy objectives. This can frustrate progress at MSA sites that are otherwise ideally located to deliver clean power at scale, close to where it is most needed.
The updated National Policy Statements should provide clearer guidance and consistency by:
This more strategic approach would ensure that renewable energy infrastructure is delivered where it is most grid-efficient and environmentally sound, precisely the combination that MSA sites can offer.
As grid-connected energy hubs with consistent year-round demand and existing access infrastructure, MSAs are uniquely positioned to deliver integrated clean energy solutions. The NPSs should reflect this by ensuring the planning system enables, rather than impedes, such developments.
MSAs are nationally strategic locations at the intersection of the UK’s transport, energy, and decarbonisation agendas. With high year-round demand, proximity to the SRN, and suitability for co-located energy infrastructure, MSAs are uniquely positioned to deliver ultra-rapid EV charging, battery storage, and renewable generation at scale.
However, the draft NPSs do not yet reflect the critical role that MSAs must play in the transition to net zero. Grid constraints, planning delays, and inconsistent treatment of land use and infrastructure need continue to hamper progress at sites like Catterick, Selby, and Killington Lake, even where projects are aligned with national energy and transport strategies.
To unlock delivery and accelerate decarbonisation, Roadchef urges the Committee to support the following targeted updates to the draft National Policy Statements:
By adopting these recommendations, the final NPS framework can enable a truly national EV charging network and unlock integrated clean energy solutions at the very sites most capable of delivering them. Roadchef stands ready to support this agenda through continued investment and collaboration with government, NESO, and infrastructure partners.
May 2025