The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has hailed the success of his London-wide ULEZ scrappage scheme as a new report published by Transport for London (TfL) reveals it was successful in helping to substantially reduce harmful emissions and improve air quality by removing older, more polluting vehicles from London’s roads.
The Mayor’s scrappage schemes have played a fundamental role in the success of the ULEZ. Thanks to all phases of the ULEZ, NOx emissions from road transport are estimated to be 36 per cent lower across London in 2024, a saving of around 3,400 tonnes – the equivalent of approximately one year of emissions from all passenger car trips in Los Angeles.
Air quality has improved at 99 per cent of air quality monitoring sites across London since 2019, and London’s air quality is improving at a faster rate than the rest of England.
London’s more deprived communities are seeing greater benefits from the ULEZ; for some of the most deprived communities living near London’s busiest roads, there’s been an estimated 80 per cent reduction in people exposed to illegal levels of pollution, compared to a scenario without the ULEZ.
The Mayor and TfL launched the London-wide ULEZ scrappage scheme in January 2023 to support the expansion of the ULEZ to outer London. It followed the success of the Mayor’s previous £61m scrappage scheme to support the introduction of the ULEZ to central London and expansion to inner London (October 2021), which led to more than 15,000 successful applications.
The popularity of the scheme meant that its initial funding of £110m was increased twice by the Mayor to £160m in August 2023 and then to £210m in January 2024.
Eligibility was gradually widened in response to uptake and feedback, to include small businesses, those in receipt of Child Benefit, and finally all Londoners with an eligible non-ULEZ compliant car or motorcycle.
Changes were also made to allow charities and eligible businesses to scrap or retrofit up to three vehicles. As a result, many more people applied for funding and more than 76,000 applicants went through the process during the 20 months of the scheme’s operation.
Entirely funded by the Mayor, it remains the largest scheme of its kind in the UK and provided more total funding than all other scrappage schemes supporting Clean Air Zones (CAZs), or Low Emission Zones (LEZs) combined outside of London.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said, “I am proud that the scrappage scheme – the biggest in the UK – has supported so many Londoners to switch to cleaner, greener forms of transport. This has made a huge difference to our air quality, and also encouraged many Londoners to take up more sustainable ways of travelling, which will make a lasting difference to our capital.
“ULEZ compliance is now more than 97 per cent, bringing cleaner air to millions of Londoners. London’s air quality is now improving at a faster rate than the rest of England and we’ve also made a difference overseas, with hundreds of vehicles supporting the medical and humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
“I will continue to take bold, world-leading action to improve London’s air quality and the health of Londoners, as we build a better, fairer, greener capital for all.”
