Transport for London (TfL) has launched a consultation on proposals to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) London-wide from August 2023.
The Mayor and TfL have delivered a range of schemes to tackle the capital’s toxic air crisis, the climate emergency and traffic congestion, but further bold action across the city is required.
The current and long-term threat from toxic air pollution to public health is significant. Over half of the 500,000 Londoners who suffer from asthma live in outer London and all areas of London still exceed safe levels of pollution. If no further action is taken to reduce air pollution the cost to the NHS and social care system in London is estimated to be a total of £10.4 billion by 2050.
The consultation will run for 10 weeks until 29 July and asks a number of questions on the proposals for the London-wide ULEZ. If a larger zone was introduced, it would have a transformative effect by the end of 2023. It is estimated that the number of cars not meeting the tough ULEZ emission standards each day would fall from 160,000 to 46,000 and number of vans from 42,000 to 26,000.
Four out of five vehicles in outer London won’t be affected as they’re already compliant with the ULEZ standards and nearly half of London households do not own a car. The ULEZ standards and charge level wouldn’t change.
Should the ULEZ be expanded following consultation, the Mayor is committed to help charities, small businesses, disabled people and Londoners on lower incomes through as big a scrappage scheme as is feasible. The Integrated Impact Assessment and consultation responses will help inform development of the scheme.
The consultation will also ask Londoners to help shape the future of road user charging in the capital. This could include scrapping existing charges, such as the Congestion Charge, and replacing them with a single road user charging scheme that uses more sophisticated technology to make it as simple and fair as possible for Londoners.
There are a number of documents to help you to respond to the consultation. For an overview of the proposals there is a short video and a short consultation brochure. Materials are also available in easy read formats and in Braille and large format, accompanied by a British Sign Language video.
We hope that you will give your views via the Have Your Say website. You can also call TfL on 0343 222 1155 or email TfL at cleanairyourview@tfl.gov.uk with your response.
