Sadiq Khan urges Rishi Sunak to spend £110million on scrappage scheme for home counties commuters

Sadiq Khan has urged Rishi Sunak to spend £110million on a scrappage scheme for home counties commuters with polluting vehicles – ahead of his ULEZ expansion for the whole of London.

The Mayor of London has encouraged the Prime Minister to fund a scrappage scheme for people who live in locations such as Surrey and Kent and need to drive into the capital.

This would provide support for people who use polluting vehicles to drive into the capital to either scrap or retrofit them.

Mr Khan also called on Mr Sunak to match the £110 million he has allocated for London’s scrappage scheme. However, a Government spokesperson has said that the mayor must ‘justify his decision’ to extend the ULEZ.

This follows news that the Mayor is planning to expand the ULEZ to cover the whole of London from August 29 2023 to boost air quality.

The Mayor of London has launched a new scrappage scheme providing financial assistance to help Londoners scrap their polluting vehicles to prepare for the expansion of the ULEZ across all London Boroughs

For diesel cars and vans to avoid the ULEZ charge they must generally have been registered from September 2015, while most petrol models that are registered after 2005 are exempt

Drivers will be slapped with a £12.50 daily fee for using vehicles inside the city that do not meet the minimum standards.

This has met fierce resistance from several councils, with five mounting a legal challenge partly based on the scrappage scheme.

In a letter, Mr Khan urged the Prime Minister to ‘become a doer, rather than a delayer, when it comes to climate action’.

He went on to explain that several areas introducing clean air zones have already received Government funding for scrapping non-compliant vehicles.

This includes areas such as:

• Manchester (£120 million)
• Bristol (£42 million)
• Birmingham (£38 million) 
• Bradford (£30 million)

However, he noted that London and the home counties ‘have not received even a penny of support’.

The mayor wrote: ‘I urge you to use some of the unexpected £30 billion windfall in the public finances to not only match the funding allocated for scrappage in London, but to introduce a targeted scrappage scheme that provides help to those based in the home counties.’

He went on to add: ‘London, the South East and the East of England make net contributions to the Treasury every year, and Londoners pay £500 million of vehicle excise yearly, which is then spent on maintaining roads in other parts of the country.

‘For our regions to pay in so much and not be helped to reduce carbon emissions and make our air safer to breathe is unfair and doesn’t make sense.’

For diesel cars and vans to avoid the ULEZ charge they must generally have been registered from September 2015.

Meanwhile, most petrol models that are registered after 2005 are exempt.

London’s scrappage scheme for vehicles that do not comply with the emissions standards includes payments of up to £2,000 for eligible drivers – such as those on low incomes or the disabled scrapping a car.

Up to £9,500 is given for charities, sole traders and small businesses scrapping or retrofitting their vans or minibuses.

However, home counties residents are not eligible for the initiative.

Mr Khan wrote that London is ‘in the grip of a deadly public health crisis’, with toxic air ‘causing the premature deaths of an estimated 4,000 Londoners every year’.

He continued: ‘It is abundantly clear then that the cost of inaction is far too high and that further action is needed to safeguard public health and spare people unnecessary suffering.

‘I’m simply not prepared to stand idly by while toxic fumes from highly polluting vehicles choke our communities and leave our children reaching for inhalers and gasping for air.

‘That’s why I’ve chosen to expand the ultra low emission zone London-wide.’

A Government spokesperson said: ‘It’s for the Mayor of London to justify his decision to expand the Ulez, and to properly consult to ensure it is not just a tax on the poorest motorists. ‘Decisions on how to allocate funding to best meet the city’s transport priorities are for the Mayor of London to make. 

‘We have provided TfL (Transport for London) with £6 billion in funding support to keep public transport moving, as well as £2 billion towards vehicle grants and infrastructure to support the rollout of clean vehicles across the country. 

‘More specifically, London has received almost £102 million of Government funding for projects specifically targeted at helping to tackle pollution.’