THE Mayor of London has extended the boundary of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to encompass the entirety of Greater London. It follows a consultation period.
The new ULEZ is effective 29 August 2023 from 00.01.
While such a move has been trailed, for many trades people and SME businesses it will mean having to swap older vans and cars to newer, possibly electric vehicles. The alternative is to pay a £12.50 a day fine.
The ULEZ operates 24 hours a day except for Christmas Day.
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.
Which Vehicles Qualify For The Extended ULEZ?
- Euro 4 for petrol cars and vans (widely available since 2006)
- Euro 6 for diesel cars and vans (widely available since 2016)
- Vehicles that do not meet the standards must pay the £12.50 daily charge
- TfL is removing the annual £10 per vehicle Auto Pay registration to simplify the payment process.
- TfL is increasing the PCN level for the ULEZ to £180 (reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days).
The change to the ULEZ border certainly comes at a controversial time. With businesses facing escalating fuel costs, and consumers concerned about heating their homes and finding the additional costs for inflationary food prices, those with non-compliant vehicles will find it challenging.
However, the London Mayor says:
The rising cost of living has been a key consideration for me. That’s why I’m announcing that we will be introducing our biggest scrappage scheme yet - £110m – to support Londoners on lower incomes, disabled Londoners, small businesses and charities to scrap or retrofit their non-compliant vehicles. All the money raised by ULEZ will be pumped back into funding local public transport and I’m pleased to announce today that we are planning the biggest ever expansion of the bus network in outer London.
The Mayor said it had not been an easy decision, but he said public health came before political expediency.
According to Hugo Griffiths, Consumer Editor at carwow, an online marketplace for buying and selling cars, the effect is to have a significant effect on used values. He reckoned that non-compliant cars in the south of England would be hit with significant devaluation, while demand for cars that do meet the standards will soar.
According to Transport for London (TfL), around 200,000 non-compliant vehicles regularly drive into the ULEZ zone. Even if owners were to drive into the zone every other day, the bill would be over £2000 in charges, he added.
Drivers of commercial vehicles will also be hit hard by the ULEZ expansion. Traders with vans over six years old will either have to upgrade their vehicles, or pass on ULEZ costs to customers.
Expanding ULEZ London-wide will save 27,000 tonnes of CO2 in outer London, nearly double that which the central London ULEZ achieved in its first year of operation, the Mayor added.
He also said that the expansion was forecast to make further progress to reduce air pollution, by reducing nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from cars and vans in outer London by 10 and 7 percent respectively, and reducing PM2.5 car exhaust emissions in outer London by nearly 16 per cent, benefiting five million outer London residents.
Map Of The Enlarged ULEZ
(c) Transport for London
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