ULEZ: Transport for London earning £730,000 each day from charge - from just 3% of London cars

A new 'one month on' report has shown that London's ULEZ expansion is paying off, slashing the number of most polluting cars on the capital's roads by nearly half - while earning Transport for London millions.

From late August, drivers across all of London with vehicles considered to be high-polluting would have to shell out £12.50 a day if they use them, as Mayor Sadiq Khan's embattled ULEZ - or ultra-low emission zone - expansion was stretched out across the Greater London area. Now new figures from Transport for London (TfL) suggest that the local government body was raking in an estimated £730,000 pounds a day from ULEZ charges, PA reports - more than £21 million a month.

While 93,700 vehicles that didn't meet emissions standards were passing through the expanded zone each day, around 36% were exempt, meaning nearly 60,000 were still forking out £12.50 each day. However, these vehicles were in the minority, with 95% of the total number of vehicles being driven in the Greater London area each day already being ULEZ compliant - and those being charged making up just 3%.

The report also showed that the expanded scheme was making a difference when it came to getting the most polluting vehicles off London's streets, with 77,000 less non-compliant vehicles on the capital’s roads on an average day as of September, compared to June this year - a drop of 45%. In newly-added ULEZ areas in the Outer London suburbs, more than 95% of vehicles on the roads were complaint as of September, up from 85% at the start of the consultation in May 2022.

In a statement, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “I’ve always said that the decision to expand the ULEZ was very difficult, but a month on from the expansion we can already see that it is working. London is now home to the world’s largest clean air zone and this new data shows 95% of vehicles seen driving in London on an average day now comply with our air quality standards – a 10 percentage point increase since I began to consult on the ULEZ expansion in May 2022.

"This will make a huge difference to the lives and health of Londoners," he continued. Khan said that 19 in 20 vehicles on London’s roads were now compliant, and did not need to pay the daily ULEZ charge.

"For the remaining Londoners still driving non-compliant vehicles, millions of pounds of scrappage scheme support is still available," the mayor said. Take-up had been incredible, he added, with 37,256 grants approved for Londoners so far for the Outer London expansion alone.

“This data is a testament to the huge progress we’ve made in tackling toxic air pollution since I was first elected in 2016. Londoners are experiencing a greener, cleaner, and healthier city... I am determined to do all I can to ensure that Londoners now and the next generation can grow up breathing cleaner air, wherever they live in the capital.”

Dr Anna Moore, a respiratory doctor in London, said it was "heartening" to see that the ULEZ expansion had helped reduce the number of polluting vehicles on the road in London. "It not only underscores the policy's immediate success but also hints at the promise it holds for our city's air quality," she said. "As a healthcare professional, I have seen the devastating effects of air pollution on respiratory health, so we cannot underestimate that these are crucial steps in cleaning up the air we all breathe.”

A recent study in Birmingham found that clean air zone policies were successful at reducing levels of nitrogen dioxide - an air pollutant which adversely affects people’s health. However, resistance to the scheme - including protests and attacks on cameras by so-called 'blade runners' - has continued.

The new TfL report said enforcement action had to be undertaken for around 3% of non-compliant vehicles, whose drivers did not pay the ULEZ charge. As of August, police were investigating nearly 300 reports of ULEZ cameras being vandalised across London.