Sadiq Khan announces £25m scrappage fund to help low-income drivers go green

Then £25m scrappage scheme will let Londoners avoid the £12.50 low emission zone levy
Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
Ross Lydall @RossLydall14 February 2019

Low-income motorists who drive an old car in central London are to be given help to switch to a “greener” vehicle.

Mayor Sadiq Khan today announced a £25 million scrappage fund to help Londoners avoid having to pay his new £12.50-a-day pollution levy.

However, the scrappage scheme will not be launched until later this year — meaning thousands of drivers are likely to be caught by the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez), which starts on April 8 in the same area as the congestion charge.

The subsidies are aimed at Londoners who “face serious financial pressure in upgrading to greener options”. Details of how many drivers qualify and how much money they may receive have yet to be revealed.

It is in addition to a £23 million fund to help the capital’s “micro businesses” — those with fewer than 10 employees and which regularly operate in central London — to buy a cleaner van.

Vehicles account for almost half of the capital’s toxic nitrogen oxide fumes. City Hall expects the Ulez to reduce emissions by about 45 per cent.

Mr Khan wants Londoners to “move away from polluting vehicles to greener alternatives” such as walking, cycling and public transport.

Speaking ahead of a national clean air summit at Tate Modern today, he said he had “one hand tied behind my back” because the Government had not backed a national scrappage scheme.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “What we do know is that life expectancy is shorter because of poor quality air. We do know that the cost to business and society and the NHS is, roughly speaking, £20 billion a year. We do know that adults like me have adult-onset asthma, caused by the poor air quality.”

The Ulez will operate 24/7 and be levied on petrol vehicles that fail to meet Euro 4 emissions standards (typically those registered up to 2005), and diesels that fail to meet Euro 6 standards (typically those registered up to September 2015). The zone’s boundaries will be extended to the North and South Circular roads by October 2021.

It has been dubbed a “poll tax on wheels” by the Tories. It is expected to affect 25,000 vehicles a day — a quarter of those entering the C-charge zone — and raise £127 million for Transport for London in its first year.

Today’s air quality summit was hearing calls for a £1.5 billion fund to help drivers switch to cleaner vehicles.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in