A home charger is a small box, but where it goes decides most of the cost and most of the convenience. In Alton, about three households in four live in a house: 29.7% in semis, 23.9% in detached houses and 21.4% in terraces at the 2021 Census. A semi in Wooteys with a drive beside the side wall is one job; a detached house in Holybourne with parking at the far end of a long drive is another; a terrace near the centre with no drive is a third. Our page on EV chargers for Alton homes covers the supply and grants; this post covers placement.
For an Alton home, the answer starts with where you park, then works back to the consumer unit, then checks the planning position. We read the planning rules on legislation.gov.uk on 19 October 2026, two days before they change.
Start from where the car parks
Put the charger where the car’s charging port ends up when you park normally, not where it looks neatest. On most Alton semis that is the side or front wall beside the drive. On a detached house the garage wall nearest the space usually works. If you reverse in on some days and drive in nose-first on others, say so, because it changes which side of the car the cable has to reach.
Wall-mounted: the usual answer on a drive
A wall is the simplest home for a charger: a short, fixed cable route and no groundwork. National permitted development, under Schedule 2, Part 2, Class D of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, covers a wall-mounted outlet within an area lawfully used for off-street parking, provided the outlet and casing do not exceed 0.2 cubic metres and it is not within the curtilage of a listed building or a scheduled monument. It must be removed when it is no longer needed. The SmartBee-M’s IP65 rating means it is sealed for outdoor wall mounting on an Alton drive.
A post when the wall is in the wrong place
Where the parking is at the end of a long Holybourne drive, in front of a detached garage or across a front garden, a post, called an upstand in the Order, can put the charger beside the car. Class E covers an upstand with an outlet within an area lawfully used for off-street parking, up to 1.6 m above the parking surface at a house and no more than one per parking space, again excluding the curtilage of a listed building. The cost is mostly underground: a trench and a cable from the consumer unit to the post.
Tethered or socketed
The SmartBee-M comes in both forms, with a 5 m cable on the tethered version, per its published specification. Tethered is quicker day to day. Socketed is tidier on a wall that faces the street, which matters on Alton’s older roads, and suits a household that may change cars. If the space is more than a few metres from the wall, cable reach decides it, and we measure that rather than guess.
The cable run back to the consumer unit
Behind every charger is a dedicated circuit from the consumer unit, with its own protection. The length and route of that cable, through a garage, under a path or round a detached house in Whitedown, is the item that most often separates two quotes for the same charger. The survey also checks the earthing arrangement and whether the consumer unit has room. Our EV charger installation cost guide sets out how those items build a price.
The national rules from 21 October 2026
The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2026, S.I. 2026/1056, comes into force on 21 October 2026. It caps wall outlets at 1.6 m above ground level. It extends the wall and post rights from off-street parking areas to other parts of a house’s curtilage, with one wall outlet per curtilage under the new route, but that extension does not apply in a conservation area. On a wall that immediately adjoins a highway, the outlet must not protrude more than 0.2 m and must leave at least 1.5 m of footway to the carriageway edge. Where a footway lies between outlet and car, the cable must cross it through a cross-pavement solution authorised by the highway authority. For Alton, the conservation-area exclusion is the part to watch.
Alton’s conservation areas and listed buildings
These are checks to make with East Hampshire District Council, not conclusions we can draw for you. Alton’s town centre has been a conservation area since 1970, revised in 1982; The Butts (1976) and Anstey (1995) are two more, and Holybourne has its own (1977), four of East Hampshire’s 43. If your home is listed, the permitted development rights above do not reach its curtilage, and listed building consent may be needed. In a conservation area, the October extension does not apply, and an Article 4 direction can remove permitted development rights on particular streets. A charger on a side or rear wall, out of the street view, is usually the easier conversation.
Terraces without a drive
For the 21.4% of Alton households in terraces, many near the centre park on the street. From 21 October, the national rule for a wall charger is that any cable crossing a footway must use a cross-pavement solution authorised by the highway authority, which for Alton’s footways is Hampshire County Council, so ask its highways team what it allows on your street before planning a route. OZEV offers on-street households up to £500 towards a chargepoint installed with an approved cross-pavement solution, subject to the council’s rules; see who qualifies for the EV chargepoint grant. Claims must be made through an OZEV-authorised installer; tell us your situation at the quote stage. If you are weighing up a battery alongside, battery storage in Alton covers where that sits.
Sources: Census 2021 via censusdata.uk, Alton (E04004490), TS044 accommodation type; Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Schedule 2, Part 2, Classes D and E (legislation.gov.uk, read 19 October 2026); The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2026, S.I. 2026/1056, articles 1, 4 and 5 (legislation.gov.uk, read 19 October 2026); East Hampshire District Council, Conservation area guidance; EnSmart SmartBee-M specification as listed by its UK distributor; GOV.UK, Changes to electric vehicle chargepoint grant schemes from 1 April 2026 (updated 7 July 2026).