Leftist London mayor Sadiq Khan’s scheme to extend the low emission tax zone to the entirety of the British capital has been branded as an “assault” on ordinary working people.
From August of next year, the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) that was introduced in 2019 in Central London will be extended throughout the rest of the city, Sadiq Khan announced this week. This will mean that all drivers of so-called “non-compliant cars” will be taxed by the city at a rate of £12.50 per day. It is estimated that around 200,000 cars that do not meet the emission standards to avoid the fee.
The policy will extend so far that even those drivers who are dropping off friends or family at Heathrow Airport will be hit with the fee, and as the airport itself already has a drop-off fee of £5 this means it will cost nearly £20 in taxes just to drive someone to the airport.
The far-left mayor said although the policy is overwhelmingly unpopular with a public already being crushed by inflation, falling real incomes, and central government tax hikes, it is worth the trade-off for having cleaner air in the city.
“We’ve seen four million Londoners breathe clean air. There’s an additional five million in outer London. And the worst air quality is in outer London. A bigger number of premature deaths. A bigger number of people with respiratory issues. A bigger number of people with asthma, but also the top 10 boroughs with the largest number of deaths are in outer London,” Khan told The Telegraph.
“It’s public health, frankly speaking, trumping political expediency,” he added.
The people of the city he governs do not share Khan’s enthusiasm for the scheme, however, with a public consultation finding that some 80 per cent of the public were against the idea of expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone.
Richard Tice, leader of Reform UK — formerly the Brexit Party — said that the planned expansion was an “attack on ordinary working people, going to work, in their vehicles, it’s an assault, it’s a financial assault on people coming in to do a decent days work to earn some cash, to pay your bills.”
“He’s got no idea how big of an impact this will have on people’s lives. And for those who say ‘I don’t live near London, that doesn’t affect me’, yes it will because it’s coming to a city near you,” he added.
Conservatives Party transport spokesman Nick Rogers spoke out against the timing of the plans.
“Now is not the time to hammer Londoners with a £12.50 daily cost-of-living charge,” he said.
“Residents have made their views very clear to the mayor: they do not want the ULEZ expansion. The mayor must listen to them, scrap these plans and use the £250m saved on real measures that tackle air pollution.”
There is no indication that the Conservative government will actually do anything to stop the scheme from going ahead, however.
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