In April 2021, law firm TLT launched an electric vehicle (EV) scheme as part of its employee benefits package via a salary sacrifice arrangement. Since then, the organisation, which employs 1,200 people, has seen a steady flow of orders.
Maria Connolly, head of clean energy and real estate, and executive board member responsible for sustainability, says: “We’re expecting to see a spike when we open our flexible benefits window later in the year. We’re also promoting it through our internal events programme and internal communications when talking about sustainability.”
Employees select the vehicle through TLT’s benefits hub. While the agreement is between scheme provider Tusker and the employee, effectively the vehicle is leased by TLT and the employee listed as the user.
The cost is reclaimed from the employee’s salary via a salary sacrifice arrangement. The employee benefits from tax savings due to the reduced benefit in kind tax rates for electric cars, currently 1% for pure electric vehicles.
“The support and guidance from the scheme provider made the setup fairly straightforward, however there is a lot to think about in terms of internal processes such as procurement and IT,” says Connolly. “This is crucial to ensuring that the legalities around such an agreement are right, not only for the employee but also for the firm as a whole.”
When an order is placed employees are given additional information on how to claim the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme grant, which provides funding of up to 75% of the cost of installation. TLT has also installed two electric vehicle charging points in the car park of its Bristol headquarters and four at its new office in Glasgow, with more to follow across the UK.
“‘Driving sustainable action’ is one of our firm’s values, and sustainability is a key part of our growth strategy, with a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2025,” adds Connolly. “We have sustainability forums in all our UK offices to help raise awareness and engage employees on our net zero journey.”