LONDON — Mayor of London Sadiq Khan moved to soften the impact of a city-wide emissions reduction scheme after a voter backlash saw the Labour Party fail to make a gain at a crucial by-election.
The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) — which costs drivers of polluting vehicles £12.50 a day to enter — is set to expand to cover the whole of London from 29 August in a bid to tackle the city’s air pollution problem.
Khan, Labour’s London mayor, on Friday launched a new £50 million fund intended to ease the impact of the scheme’s expansion on drivers.
The funding means all Londoners with non-compliant cars and motorbikes will be eligible for £2,000 towards a new less-polluting vehicle, while businesses will receive a scrappage fee for vans of up to £7,000.
In his announcement, Khan noted that 90 percent of cars driven in outer London are currently ULEZ-compliant, but said he was “determined to ensure no Londoner and no small business is left behind.”
The expansion of the scheme has been seized on by the Conservative Party, which campaigned against ULEZ in the Uxbridge by-election and held onto a House of Commons seat which had been hotly tipped to switch to Labour.
Steve Tuckwell — who succeeded former prime minister Boris Johnson as the Conservative MP after the Uxbridge vote — said the changes were “totally inadequate and far too late.”
Conservative Susan Hall, who is hoping to beat Sadiq Khan at the next mayoral election, said she “would stop the ULEZ expansion on day one of a new mayoralty.”
However, those criticisms came as hundreds of doctors urged Khan and Labour’s national leader Keir Starmer — who has attributed the Uxbridge result to ULEZ and urged Labour to learn lessons — to press ahead with the plan.
The doctors sounded the alarm on the “devastating health consequences” they see from poor air quality on a daily basis.
In an open letter published in the Guardian, GPs, respiratory consultants, radiologists, chest physicians, pediatricians and public health doctors, warned air pollution “not only causes respiratory conditions such as asthma, but also heart attacks, heart arrhythmias, strokes, child developmental disorders, lung cancer and dementia.”
“ULEZ works,” they added. “It has already saved lives and prevented many illnesses and hospital admissions.”