London extends the tax to polluting cars: the whole city closed to Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel
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In London, the ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) is still expanding, which from August next year will in fact cover the whole city. Anyone who does not have a non-Ulez car, i.e. anyone driving a Euro 4 petrol vehicle (registered after 1 January 2006), or Euro 6 diesel (after 1 January 2016), will have to pay an access fee of 15 euros. And whoever fails to do so will be punishable by a fine of 208 euros.
And if the protests have already started, it must be said that since the Ulez zone was established three years ago, the number of fully electric vehicles licensed in London has more than quadrupled and the percentage of diesel cars has decreased by more than a quarter. Uber now makes a higher share of electric vehicle journeys in London than any other major city. And London’s air quality — which used to be far worse than comparably sized cities including New York and Madrid — is now on par with them.
The case
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“We have to deal with air pollution, we have to deal with the climate emergency and we have to deal with congestion,” Mayor Sadiq Khan told reporters. “The expansion of the Ulez area will mean that by August next year, more than five million Londoners will be breathing cleaner air,” concluded the mayor.
The move has met fierce opposition, including from campaigners in districts recently reportedly affected. Opponents say they lack the efficient and frequent public transport links enjoyed by areas closer to the city centre, and rely more on private cars. Median incomes are also lower in suburban London.
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And in a market survey conducted after the mayor’s announcement, most respondents opposed the expansion: 59% of people said the Ultra Low Emissions Zone, or Ulez, should not be implemented in the whole city and this number rises to 68% if the responses from organized campaigns are excluded. Of those polled in suburban London, 70% said the zone should not be expanded. But Mayor Sadiq Khan goes straight and defines the expansion of the Ulez as “one of the hardest decisions I’ve made since I’ve been a politician”, and that “not wanting to allow political expediency to trump public health”.
We’ll see how it ends because in the meantime Nick Rogers, the Conservatives’ transport spokesman at the Greater London Authority, called on Khan to scrap the plan: “Now is not the time to hammer Londoners with a £12.50 daily cost of living charge,” Rogers said . “The residents expressed their point of view very clearly to the mayor: they don’t want the expansion of Ulez.”
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But controversy aside, Khan will revive an initiative offering money to scrap polluting cars, with a new £110m fund available to drivers eligible to apply for a subsidy or free public transport. Extra bus lines will also be introduced in the affected areas and disabled drivers will be exempt until October 2027.
Will it be enough? We will see. Nine million people live in that area of London and although – according to data collected by the mayor’s office and analyzed by academics from Imperial College London – the Ulez has led to a significantly lower level of particulate and dioxide emissions of nitrogen than otherwise expected, then the theme of popular will is strong. Khan himself in the election campaign treasured the willingness to listen to his citizens. And it was immediately reproached: “Sadiq Khan has broken his promise to listen to Londoners,” said the Conservative group in London’s devolved legislative assembly on Twitter. The fight has just begun. And it is said that the mayor will not make a U-turn on the Ulez expansion.
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