More Londoners to get ULEZ financial help, says mayor's office

The number of people eligible for financial support to replace polluting vehicles is set to increase ahead of the capital's expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) from August.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said there would be support for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, not just sole traders and "micro businesses".

All families on child benefit will also be offered access to the scheme.

Five councils are currently opposing the ULEZ expansion with legal action.

The new eligibility criteria for the £110m scrappage scheme will be in place from end of July, the mayor's office said.

It added that care workers needing support would be "targeted for help", and that charities would be able to scrap or retrofit up to three vans instead of one.

Mr Khan said he took action after listening to concerns about the ULEZ expansion, which is set to cover outer London from 29 August.

On Wednesday, he took questions from callers to Eddie Nestor's BBC London Radio show, including about ULEZ's expansion.

A total of 874,710 families in London receive child benefit, with 578,315 of those in outer London, the mayor's office says.

A grace period will also be given to sole traders, "micro businesses" with up to 10 staff, small businesses, and registered charities that have bought ULEZ-compliant vehicles that will not arrive until after 29 August.

The mayor's office said the scrappage scheme would "be kept under ongoing review".

Last week, two London Labour MPs urged Mr Khan to review the scheme and said they were concerned many of their constituents would not be covered by the financial support.

Abena Oppong-Asare, MP for Erith and Thamesmead, and Ellie Reeves, MP for Lewisham West and Penge, called for an urgent review of what additional support could be provided for families and businesses.

Five Conservative-led councils - Bexley, Bromley, Harrow, Hillingdon and Surrey - have already launched legal action over the expansion of ULEZ.

The leader of the Bexley Council, councillor Baroness O'Neill of Bexley OBE, said if the mayor "had taken notice of the results of his own consultation", he would have realised more people needed support.

"The reality is that he could have consulted on a scrappage scheme that would have made a difference, and his announcement today is too little, too late."

She added the scrappage money offered is "not sufficient to replace vehicles that have effectively become worthless as a result of his expansion proposals", and the proposals would still have a "detrimental impact" on areas like Bexley, "where we have limited public transport".

She continued: "We once again call in him to see sense and withdraw the proposals and spend taxpayers' money on something that will make actually make a difference."

Tim Donovan, Political Editor at BBC London

This is an attempt by the mayor to head-off some of the criticisms there have been about the plans to extend ULEZ.

These adjustments do not increase the amount available in the scrappage scheme; that remains a £110m fund, but it does expand the eligibility.

There is also a grace period being given to businesses who put in an order for new vehicles but are having to wait for them to arrive, or are having those vehicles retrofitted.

The key question is, how far does this go towards meeting people's concerns?

There are 280,000 cars registered to addresses in outer London that are not compliant - these are figures recently released by Transport for London (TfL).

If you gave all that scrappage money to car owners it would mean 55,000 would be helped - so a lot would not be.

Conversely, there are 80,000 vans that are non-compliant at the moment - that's nearly half of vans registered to addresses in outer London.

If you gave all the scrappage money to van owners, you'd be able to help under 25,000 of those.

So the alternative question might be, how much easier will the changes make it to access the scrappage scheme funds?

Speaking on behalf of City Hall's Conservatives, Peter Fortune AM said the announcement was "the bare minimum" and the scheme was "unnecessary money-grabbing" that would hit "charities, small businesses and low-income families the hardest".

He said: "I welcome Mr Khan's decision to listen to his political opponents and stop people on low incomes unnecessarily getting into debt over the ULEZ expansion, by allowing more people to access the scrappage scheme.

"Be in no doubt, however, that he is offering the bare minimum and this minor change will not cover the crippling expense of buying a new car.

"The best thing Sadiq Khan can do now is scrap it and start tackling air pollution where it is, instead of taxing people where it isn't."

Meanwhile, Sarah King, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said while they "welcomed the news that the scheme is being expanded to include businesses with more employees", they were "still concerned".

"The period of grace that is proposed isn't going to be long enough for them to purchase the vehicles they need to purchase and adjust and comply," she said.

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