Sadiq Khan ditches plans to charge non-electric cars driving into central London

Sadiq Khan has shelved plans to charge all non-electric cars driving into central London, it has emerged.

The Mayor of London had pledged to create a central London zone by 2025 that would “likely” impose an extra charge on any vehicle that produced emissions.

The plan was floated in his transport strategy, published in 2018, which was updated last year to focus on “the triple challenges of toxic air pollution, the climate emergency and traffic congestion”.

But the mayor’s office has now confirmed that the plan has been shelved, although councils in the capital will still be backed to bring in additional schemes.

A spokesman for Mr Khan told the Financial Times: “TfL continues to support boroughs who wish to implement zero emission zones in their local areas.”

They added: “The mayor is rolling out some of the most ambitious policies of any city in the world to clean up London’s air, including the expansion of the ultra-low emission zone, bringing cleaner air to 5 million more Londoners.”

Fierce opposition

The zero-emission zone would have likely met fierce opposition from residents, businesses and ministers as it would come in addition to the £12.50 daily Ulez charge for driving older, polluting vehicles, and the £15 daily fee on drivers of all petrol or diesel vehicles in the congestion charge zone.

On Tuesday, Mr Khan rejected claims from Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, that he wanted to “roll out more road user charging” across the capital, though he admitted that officials across the country had been “looking at” other green charging schemes “for some time”.

“I am ruling out a pay-per-mile scheme while I am mayor,” Mr Khan added.

Hailing the Ulez expansion as “a landmark moment”, Mr Khan continues to insist that the expansion will “improve air quality” and prevent 4,000 premature deaths from pollution, despite criticism that his claims are based upon “flawed” and “selective” scientific data.

Mr Harper told LBC: “If you look at the Mayor of London’s own website for his Project 2030 scheme, he wants to roll out more road-user charging schemes, pay-per-mile schemes across London.

“There are a whole bunch of jobs on that website, some of them paying up to £90,000 a year, to do pay-per-mile schemes in the future.”

The Transport Secretary has written to Sir Keir Starmer warning that the Government will back an amendment to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill that would ensure that councillors could block “a Labour plan to use air pollution to attempt to justify” charges on drivers.

The amendment to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, originally tabled by Lord Moylan, a Conservative peer, would introduce a new clause that would allow a local authority to “opt out” of TfL “road-user charging schemes in London” if the scheme was meant to improve air quality.

It comes after an alliance of local authorities on the outskirts of London unsuccessfully attempted to block the Ulez expansion and are now refusing to erect warning signs showing where the zone starts.