HUNDREDS of thousands of motorists have just two years to save up for a new car – or face punishing daily charges under a “pollution tax” that has barely been publicised.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s planned charge of £12.50 a day for “dirtier” cars over a certain age to enter the city will send the part- exchange value of those vehicles plummeting.
To make matters worse, there is no scrappage scheme in place to compensate drivers who opt to change their vehicles for cleaner, less polluting models.
There will be no exemptions from the fee, discounts for residents or relaxation of the rules at weekends.
The first stage of the scheme — called the Ultra Low Emission Zone, or Ulez — comes into effect in just 11 weeks, on April 8, covering the current Congestion Zone.
But from October 2021 it will expand to a huge area bounded by the North and South Circular roads and covering more than 12 London boroughs.
What’s more, councils in other cities including Manchester, Oxford and Birmingham are already said to be looking at bringing in similar schemes.
Central London workers who commute by car face paying an extra £62.50 a week, or more than £3,000 a year. But the fee is in ADDITION to the existing £11.50-a-day Congestion Charge, adding up to a combined £24 daily clobbering — an exorbitant £6,000 a year.
Drivers of pre-2015 diesels and petrol vehicles made before 2006 will have to pay up. It is expected that the applicable age of vehicles will move with time, so in 2022 it will be cars older than 2016 that are affected by the zone and so on.
It means every time people drive their car in the zone — mums on the school run, weekend shoppers, shift workers, Blue Badge holders and their carers — they will have to pay the £12.50 fee. Failure to pay it could incur a £160 fine.
Gareth Bacon, Tory leader of the London Assembly, said: “More than 3.5million people live inside this zone and many more pass through it daily. Residents will suddenly find short trips to do the weekly shop or take their child to school will cost them an additional £12.50.
“This is Sadiq Khan’s poll tax as the people hit hardest will be the poorest. Many simply won’t be able to afford to upgrade their vehicle.”
‘Highway robbery’
Some authorities have doubts about the environmental benefit of the scheme, which is administered by local government agency Transport for London. Mr Bacon said: “Based on TfL figures, the extension would improve air quality by a mere ten per cent.”
Cameras will read vehicle number plates as they go into the zone and check them against TfL’s database to see if they meet the emissions standard.
TfL says there are about 1.15million vehicles currently registered in the expanded Ulez. But car industry trade body the SMMT estimates that 1.6million London motorists will be affected, because it would include people living in outer London boroughs who regularly drive inside the zone.
It is not yet clear how small trips within the expanded zone will be monitored. In general, it will be owners of older diesel and petrol cars that will have to pay up, based on their pollution emissions.
It means someone could pop to the shops in a £160,000 six-litre Bentley Bentayga 4×4 without paying a penny, yet a 2011 diesel Ford hatchback — current value £5,000 — will have to pay.
Howard Cox, founder of pressure group FairFuelUK, told The Sun: “Families least able to afford a newer vehicle will be hardest hit.
“The Mayor of London has unilaterally devalued the UK’s diesel fleet by £35billion. They have made millions of vehicles unsaleable. It’s highway robbery.”
London’s Ulez is expected to be a financial lifeline for TfL, which is facing a near £1billion deficit.
Projections for its first year, 2019 to 2020, show a revenue of £174million with costs of £47million.
Roger Lawson, of the Alliance of British Drivers, another pressure group, said: “The Ulez is a giant con to raise more taxes to fix the Mayor’s budget problems. In reality, many people don’t even know about the plan, and many more simply can’t afford to buy a newer car.”
Shaun Bailey, the Tory London mayoral candidate for 2020, said: “London’s air quality needs to improve, but Khan’s rush to implement the first wave of his Ulez this April over the complaints of small businesses makes it look like a cash grab to cover for his awful mismanagement of the TfL budget. Even worse, it’s a cash grab that will hurt those who can least afford it.”
TfL has not said how many more cameras it will need for the scheme but added it may use existing infrastructure and transportable cameras.
It is believed this could include using the ANPR — automated number plate recognition — cameras currently fitted to many buses to catch cars wrongly using bus lanes.
A source told The Sun that 700 new cameras will be needed in the expanded zone but the ABD’s Roger Lawson believes the real total would be more like 3,000.
Tfl says it is “currently assessing” how many extra cameras will be needed and is looking at the “most efficient means of deploying enforcement cameras.” The Mayor of London’s office claims the pollution charge is crucial.
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A spokesman said: “TfL estimate that the set-up costs of the expanded Ulez will be between £90million and £130million — a price worth paying to help tackle the air quality crisis that costs London £3.7billion a year and increases the risks of premature death, asthma and dementia and damages children’s lung growth.”
Paul Cowperthwaite, General Manager for Road User Charging at TfL, added: “We expect to add to the existing 1,000 TfL cameras when the Ulez expands to the North and South Circulars in 2021.
“We are currently assessing how many additional enforcement cameras will be needed and looking at the most efficient means of deploying them.”
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News Photo London diesel motorists will have to buy a new car or face paying thousands in new pollution tax
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