The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) scrappage scheme will be expanded, with grants of £2,000 being made available to all Londoners who own a non ULEZ-compliant car or motorbike.
Small businesses and charities will also now be able to receive payments of £7,000 – up from £5,000 – to scrap a non-compliant van, and the grants for wheelchair accessible vehicles will increase from £5,000 to £10,000.
Mr Khan will use £50m of City Hall’s reserves to fund the expansion taking the scrappage fund from a total of £110m to £160m.
The decision to expand the scrappage scheme follows concerns that the extension of the ULEZ cost Labour the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelections. After the loss, Labour leader Keir Starmer urged the mayor to ‘reflect’ on the scheme.
Announcing the expansion of the scrappage scheme yesterday evening, Mr Khan said that he had listened to concerns about the impact of expanding ULEZ to the outskirts of London during a cost-of-living crisis.
He said: ‘I have continued to listen to the concerns of Londoners over recent months, and today I can announce a huge expansion to the scrappage scheme that means that all Londoners with non ULEZ-compliant cars will now be able to get financial support to switch to greener, less polluting vehicles.’
This article first appeared on our sister site Localgov.
