The ULEZ charge to drive polluting cars in London to be expanded

The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), where polluting cars have to pay to drive through inner London is to be expanded to the whole of Greater London.

Motorists driving within the ULEZ currently pay £12.50 per day to drive within the zone, which covers most of inner London, with the North and South circular roads as its boundary. If motorists drive into central London, they also pay the £15 congestion charge on top of that.

In order to encourage motorists to switch to lower polluting vehicles, the ULEZ is to be expanded to the whole of London covered by the Mayor of London’s authority. It’s been estimated that around 85% of vehicles in outer London are already compliant with the low emission standards, so although geographically the expansion is large, the impact will be limited to a minority of London’s motorists.

ULEZ boundary map – source: TfL consultation

The expansion of the ULEZ to the rest of London will come into effect at the end of August 2023, but ahead of that, a car scrappage scheme will be expanded along with a grace period for people with disabilities who may be more reliant on their car and less able to afford to replace it.

Vehicles must meet the following emission standards to drive in the ULEZ area without paying the charge:

• Euro 4 for petrol cars and vans (widely available since 2006)
• Euro 6 for diesel cars and vans (widely available since 2016)
• Euro 3 for motorcycles and mopeds (widely available since 2007)

Motorists can check if their vehicle is compliant with the low emissions standards here.

According to reports, the ULEZ has already been successful in helping to reduce roadside pollution levels by 44 per cent in central London and 20 per cent in inner London. The aim of expanding the scheme is to reduce pollution across London, which has been estimated by Imperial College London to lead to around 4,000 Londoners dying prematurely each year. The highest number of deaths were recorded in outer London boroughs, which was put down to the higher proportion of elderly people living in these areas who are more vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution.

Expanding the zone to outer London is likely then to have a greater impact on reducing deaths from pollution.

To assist motorists who own older polluting vehicles, there will be a £110 million fund that motorists can use to cover some of the cost of replacing their older cars, or retrofitting their vehicle for certain vans and minibuses. Under the scheme, Londoners receiving certain means-tested benefits and non-means-tested disability benefits can apply for grants of up to £2,000 to scrap their non-compliant cars or motorcycles. Car owners can also opt to receive a smaller cash grant of £1,200 accompanied by up to two free annual bus and tram passes, worth just over £3,000 — to encourage more people to switch to public transport.

The details of the revised scrappage scheme and who can qualify are here.

Expanding the ULEZ will not be cheap though, as lots of monitoring equipment needs to be installed. It’s been estimated that expanding the zone will cost in the region of £200 million. However, the expansion of the ULEZ from inner London to the ring roads which took place in 2021 raised around £100 million from motorists. Therefore, the cost of expanding the ULEZ again is likely to be recovered in 3-5 years, assuming the scrappage scheme is used in full, and a reducing income in the future from fewer non-compliant vehicles paying the charge.

The money raised by ULEZ will be pumped back into funding local public transport, and TfL has already announced that there be an expansion of the bus network in parts of outer London where people are more reliant on driving due to the lack of bus services.

Additional proposals are also being drawn up to improve bus services in outer London to support growth areas. This includes improvements in Havering, Barnet, Ealing, Harrow, Haringey and Redbridge. These changes are still under development and subject to consultation when more details would be published about specific route changes.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:  “The ULEZ so far has been transformational, reducing harmful pollution levels by almost a half in central London. But there is still far too much toxic air pollution permanently damaging the health of young Londoners and leading to thousands of early deaths every year, with the greatest number of deaths in the outer London boroughs. Expanding the ULEZ London-wide will mean five million more people will be able to breathe cleaner air and live healthier lives.”

The consultation to decide on whether to expand the ULEZ is here.