ULEZ: More than 1m people outside London to be hit by expansion - report

The expansion of the ULEZ is being opposed by a number of councils in and out of London

More than 1.5 million people living outside London could be impacted by the new London-wide Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), according to new research.

Data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) also suggests 30% of vehicles in the UK do not come within the emission limits of ULEZ.

The Liberal Democrats, which analysed the data, is calling for a scrappage scheme for across the South East.

The government said it was a matter for local authorities to decide.

ULEZ aims to cut pollution levels across London by charging drivers of vehicles that do not meet minimum emissions standards £12.50 a day.

Currently, drivers are only charged to enter the area within London's North and South-Circular roads but the mayor wants to expand this to all of London's boroughs from August.

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'Betrayal'

The Lib Dems looked at the data which covered 10 counties - Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Kent, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey, East Sussex and West Sussex.

It found:

• More than 380,000 vehicles registered to households in outer London were at risk of non-compliance, significantly higher than the 200,000 non-compliant vehicles which Transport for London (TfL) claimed were currently recorded as driving in outer London

• In Kent there were more than 250,000 vehicles likely to be non-compliant with ULEZ; in Essex more than 240,000 and in Surrey 157,338

The Lib Dems said anybody in the home counties with a non-compliant car who had a "legitimate reason" for driving into the capital should be able to claim a grant.

Currently, commuters driving in and out of Greater London do not have access to the mayor's £110m scrappage scheme, which offers grants of £2,000 to people on benefits to help them give up their car.

Some businesses in London are eligible for £5,000 or more if they purchase a hybrid or electric vehicles.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the government had previously helped other parts of the UK with scrappage costs.

Only those claiming benefits and living in London are eligible for the scrappage scheme

"I think it is a betrayal of London and the commuter belt by the government not to help drivers with ULEZ," he added.

"The government has thrown millions of pounds of taxpayers money at cities across the country implementing clean air zones, but not a single penny for hard-pressed workers and carers in the South East.

"It is a shameful situation.

"It is also reckless for the mayor to push ahead with this in the middle of a cost of living crisis whilst millions have no access to car scrappage schemes or decent local transport links."

Ed Davey has said it is "reckless" for the mayor to expand the ULEZ during a cost of living crisis

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: "The mayor is pleased that Ed Davey agrees with his long-standing call for the government to support the switch to cleaner vehicles by funding a targeted national scrappage scheme or by providing funding to London and the surrounding areas, as it has for other parts of the country, such as Birmingham, Bristol and Portsmouth."

The Department of Transport say that as transport is devolved, the ULEZ issue would be one for TfL to respond to and local authorities are leading on the scrappage scheme.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which has been in charge of allocating money for scrappage schemes in other parts of the country, has been contacted for comment.

'Disproportionate'

Surrey County Council is one of the five Conservative-run authorities which is seeking a judicial review of the ULEZ expansion plan.

It says it will hit many residents who currently drive across the border into London regularly for work or for personal reasons but do not qualify for the mayor's scrappage scheme and has barred TfL from erecting ULEZ warning signs on its roads.

The Ultra Low Emission Zone will expand across all London boroughs from the end of August

The mayor said he would be defending any challenge to this "vital scheme".

Auto Trader has also warned of a shortage of cheap used cars that are ULEZ compliant.

Figures show the average cost of ULEZ compliant petrol and diesel cars for sale in London is £15,000 and £19,991 respectively.

Only about 5,000 of these compliant cars were under £5,000.

A TfL-commissioned report by consultant Jacobs published in May 2022 warned of a "disproportionate" impact on low-income households "due to their lesser capacity to switch to a compliant vehicle and/or to change mode".

The mayor's spokesperson said the city's "toxic air" was leading to children growing up with stunted lungs and about 4,000 premature deaths a year, with the greatest number of deaths linked to air pollution in the outer boroughs.

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