One government plans to make it mandatory for all new homes built in towns and cities to have electric car charging points. It’s part of the United Kingdom’s long-term plan to phase out traditional cars.

The plan is to ban the sales of new petrol (gas) and diesel cars from 2040 onwards, a target that’s designed to be realistic given the huge cultural and manufacturing changes it would involve. There’s still some dispute over whether hybrid vehicles should be banned as well, leaving purely electric cars as the only choice for new buyers.

In the meantime the goal is to overcome the chicken-and-egg situation of people not buying electric cars until there are more charging points and nobody having an incentive to install widespread charging points until more people drive electric cars.

The proposal would be that construction companies would only be allowed to build new homes in suburban areas if they included a charging point. Another idea is a rule for local governments that said any new street lighting post besides a car parking space should include a charging point.

The government also said it could spend more money on infrastructure for electric cars, though didn’t specifically say if this would involve any funding for homebuilders or local authorities hit by the new requirements.