No 10 slaps down Sadiq Khan after London Mayor begged PM for yet more money to prop up hated ULEZ expansion with £110m car scrappage scheme for home counties commuters
Downing Street slapped down Sadiq Khan today after he begged Rishi Sunak to spend £110million to prop up his controversial ULEZ scheme.
The Labour Mayor of London has already made hundreds of millions from his hated ultra low emission zone, as income rose from £77million to £226million in the last two years.
Yet the Government slammed Khan’s demands for more money, saying it was up to him to ‘justify his decision to expand the ULEZ’ and make sure it is ‘not just a tax on the poorest motorists’.
A Government spokesman said: ‘We have provided TfL with £6billion in funding to keep public transport moving, as well as £2billion towards vehicle grants and infrastructure to support the rollout of clean vehicles across the country.’
Khan’s pleas for more than £100million of extra cash came after it was revealed the Mayor plans to expand ULEZ to cover the whole of London from August 29.
The Government spokesman added: ‘More specifically, London has received almost £102million of Government funding for projects specifically targeted at helping to tackle pollution.’
He added: ‘Decisions on how to allocate funding to best meet the city’s transport priorities are for the Mayor of London to make.’
Drivers will be slapped with a £12.50 daily fee for using vehicles inside the city that do not meet the minimum standards.
This has met fierce resistance from several councils, with five mounting a legal challenge partly based on the scrappage scheme.
In a letter, Mr Khan urged the Prime Minister to ‘become a doer, rather than a delayer, when it comes to climate action’.
Khan claimed even more money was needed to fund a project for people who lived in locations such as Surrey and Kent and needed to drive to the capital to have their vehicles scrapped or retrofitted.
What is the scrappage scheme?
The Mayor of London has launched a new £110m scrappage scheme providing financial assistance to help eligible Londoners scrap their highest polluting vehicles to prepare for the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) across all London boroughs from 29 August 2023.
You will need to live within one of the 32 London boroughs or the City of London and receive certain benefits to be eligible for the ULEZ car and motorcycle scrappage scheme.
Other scrappage schemes:
Cities with clean air zones:
Source: Gov.uk
He said several areas introducing clean air zones have already received Government funding for scrapping non-compliant vehicles.
Such areas include:
However, he noted that London and the home counties ‘have not received even a penny of support’.
The mayor wrote: ‘I urge you to use some of the unexpected £30billion windfall in the public finances to not only match the funding allocated for scrappage in London, but to introduce a targeted scrappage scheme that provides help to those based in the home counties.’
He went on to add: ‘London, the South East and the East of England make net contributions to the Treasury every year, and Londoners pay £500million of vehicle excise yearly, which is then spent on maintaining roads in other parts of the country.
‘For our regions to pay in so much and not be helped to reduce carbon emissions and make our air safer to breathe is unfair and doesn’t make sense.’
His plea for more cash was met with fury from the public.
