Conservative MPs have attacked Mayor Sadiq Khan’s proposals to expand London’s £12.50-a-day Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) to encompass the entire city next year as “another levy on hard-pressed motorists.”
The expansion, which is expected to begin on August 29 next year, will affect over 100,000 cars, charging drivers an extra £4,500 per year and providing a total increase to City Hall’s finances of up to £450 million per year.
Mr Khan wants to expand the Ulez limit beyond the North and South Circular roads, which have been covered since October 2021, to include the entire Greater London area and 3.5 million additional residents.
The Mayor argues that the expansion is necessary to tackle London’s ‘toxic air crisis’, claiming that pollution has been a factor in about 4,000 premature deaths during 2019 and most of these in outer parts of the city. A consultation on the extension is currently underway and running for another two months until the end of July 29.
But Conservative politicians say the extension would be unfair on locals in the outer suburbs, which often feature higher proportions of Tory voters and where access to public transport is not as good as in the inner zones.
Gareth Bacon, Tory MP for Orpington, said there was an acceptable argument for Ulez in Central London but ‘a much less plausible argument for the extension that he’s already implemented to the North and South Circular’.
Mr Bacon told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘There is no argument for that really to push out to the Greater London boundary, none whatsoever. He’s doing it because he knows that it will raise a lot of money.
‘If you are in outer London, and you have a vehicle that fails the Ulez standard, this is going to cost you and if you use that vehicle every day is going to cost you an extra £4,500 a year.’
Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East, also told the Telegraph: ‘People in outer London depend on cars and vans for their livelihoods. The Tube is concentrated on moving people in and out of London.’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a former Mayor himself, has also urged Mr Khan to halt the expansion plans as the cost-of-living crisis continues, saying during a visit to Bromley last week: ‘Don’t add more burdens to families now, don’t add more burdens to business.
‘We can improve air quality together but I think another tax on families and businesses and white vans and the rest of it, is going to hit people just when we’re trying to put more money into their pocket.’
Mr Khan is desperate to raise funds for Transport for London after its finances were devastated during the pandemic due to a collapse in demand while people stayed at home during lockdowns – and will be hoping that the delayed opening of the Elizabeth line last Tuesday will also help towards balancing the books.
But Mr Khan has said the expansion is needed because the ‘current and long-term threat from toxic air pollution to public health is significant’, adding that harmful emissions will cost the NHS and social care £10.4billion if no further action is taken to improve air quality.
The Mayor is also concerned about traffic congestion which he said had an estimated cost to the London economy of £5.1billion last year. Mr Khan added that nearly two-thirds of the cost of congestion in the city has been attributed to traffic delays in outer London.
He has said that in the short term, expanding the Ulez zone ‘will have the biggest effect on emissions relative to the cost to Londoners as a whole, as well as helping to tackle the climate emergency and traffic congestion’.
A spokesman for Mr Khan told MailOnline today: ‘Toxic air caused by traffic is still leading to children growing up with stunted lungs and nearly 4,000 premature deaths a year – with the greatest number of deaths attributable to air pollution in London’s outer boroughs, which the Ulez doesn’t currently cover. There has also been a slower rate of improvement in air quality in outer London than in central and inner London.
‘While expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone is vital to protect Londoner’s health, it is also important to tackle emissions from transport by changing the way we travel. That is why the Mayor is continuing to invest in public transport, walking and cycling as well as encouraging people to use cleaner vehicles through the Ulez.
‘When weighing up the different options, the rising cost of living was a key consideration. With Londoners budgets under pressure, the Mayor would not ask Londoners to pay more unless he was convinced it is justified to reduce pollution, save lives and protect health.
‘TfL is now carrying out a major consultation on proposals for further expansion of the ULEZ so that they can be implemented in August 2023. The consultation does not propose to change the current ULEZ emission standards.’
Drivers of vehicles which do not comply with minimum emissions standards are charged a daily fee of £12.50.
It is the latest phase of Mr Khan’s so-called ‘war on motorists’ in recent years, which has included Low Traffic Neighbourhoods which shut some roads to through-traffic but resulted in higher local congestion; the Congestion Charge being extended in time as well as cost; and cycle lanes constructed on already-existing roads but resulting in longer journeys for motorists.
More than 3.5million more people will live within the zone if it is expanded, and the Mayor has estimated that an extra 135,000 vehicles would be affected, meaning it could rake in almost £1.7million extra per day.
When launching a consultation on the Ulez expansion, conducted by Transport for London, Mr Khan’s office warned the capital is suffering a ‘toxic air crisis’, with some 4,000 premature deaths in 2019 attributed to filthy air.
The London boroughs of Barnet, Bromley, Croydon and Havering had the most deaths, demonstrating that poor air quality ‘is not just a central London problem’, the Mayor’s office said.
Whether or not a vehicle is liable for the Ulez charge depends on how much nitrogen dioxide (NO2) it emits. NO2 damages lungs and can exacerbate existing conditions such as asthma and lung and heart disease.
For diesel cars to avoid the charge they must generally have been registered after September 2015, while most petrol models registered from 2005 are exempt.
Earlier this month a Freedom of Information report from the AA found that the expansion could see a third of drivers priced off the road due to its daily charges.
Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of roads policy, said at the time: ‘The original ULEZ impacted on 300,000 car-owning London residents, the vast majority coming from low-income backgrounds without the ability to afford a replacement vehicle. This expansion of the zone will price hundreds of thousands more off the road.’
He added: ‘These drivers and their families will, hopefully, be starting to recover from the cost of living crisis in August of next year. The London Mayor wants to hit them with a charge or a car-replacement cost that they will never be able to afford.’
The AA is calling instead for an expansion of Park & Ride and Park & Cycle facilities on the city’s outskirts, which it said will remove the emissions from huge numbers of cars ‘long after the Ulez becomes defunct’.
The organisation added that the city of Cambridge has converted 3.6 million inner-city car journeys into bus trips each year using this method.
Anyone driving into London in a diesel car that doesn’t meet Euro 6 emission standards – generally motors registered after September 2015 – have to pay a daily £12.50 levy to enter the zone.
For petrol car drivers, only vehicles that fail to meet Euro 4 standards – registered after 2005 – are charged under the scheme’s existing rules.
Drivers who fail to pay receive a £160 fine, which is cut to £80 if paid within a fortnight of receiving a penalty notice.
Mr Khan said the expansion covering all 33 boroughs including the City of London would be supported by the ‘biggest scrappage scheme feasible to help Londoners on low incomes, disabled Londoners and businesses’.
A similar scheme was available ahead of October 2021’s extension, though it ran out the day ULEZ was extended across the capital.
The aim of the latest extension – according to Mr Khan – is to reduce congestion and cut air pollution levels.
However, it will also see additional funds for TfL, which have been hit hard financially by the Covid-19 pandemic and a resulting drop in public transport use in the capital.
According to City Hall, the fresh expansion could see an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 fewer polluting vehicles driven in London, which would result in a 10 per cent cut in harmful nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.
This compares to 47,000 fewer older – and ‘dirtier’ – vehicles a day off the capital’s roads and an estimated 30 per cent cut in NOx from the October expansion.
The move would likely see thousands of drivers forced into buying newer car that comply with the rules, which will hit the poorest hardest and could force many who can’t afford to replace their existing vehicles out of private vehicle ownership entirely.
Ian Plummer, commercial director at Auto Trader, previously described the Ulez extension as ‘deeply unhelpful’ for many motorists. And Michael Lloyd of the Federation of Small Businesses said there is ‘great cause for concern’.