11:32 am, July 28, 2023
The RAC today urged Sadiq Khan and the government to take a more unified approach to expanding the ultra low emission zone after the Mayor of London won a High Court challenge by five councils.
The outer London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Harrow and Hillingdon plus Surrey County Council launched legal action in February over the Labour mayor’s proposals to extend the zone (Ulez) beyond the North and South Circular roads.
At a hearing earlier this month, the local authorities’ lawyers said Khan lacked the legal power to order the zone’s expansion by varying existing regulations, and argued there was an ‘unfair and unlawful’ approach to collecting views on the plans.
But the mayor’s legal team rejected the bid to quash his November 2022 decision to extend Ulez to all of London’s boroughs, saying the move was ‘entirely lawful’ and that ‘ample information’ was provided for a ‘fair consultation’.
In a ‘landmark’ ruling today, Mr Justice Swift dismissed the councils’ case.
The judge said: ‘I am satisfied that the mayor’s decision to expand the Ulez area by amendment of the present road charging scheme, rather than by making an entirely new…scheme, was within his powers.’
He added that, having ‘carefully considered’ the consultation process, he was satisfied that enough information was given for people who wished to respond to provide ‘informed responses’.
‘Lawful’
Mr Justice Swift said the consultation on the scrappage scheme was ‘not in depth’, but was ‘lawful’.
The councils had also challenged plans for a £110m scheme to provide grants supporting the scrapping of non Ulez-compliant vehicles, arguing they were unlawful because a ‘buffer zone’ for ‘non-Londoners’ affected by the extended charging zone was not considered.
Khan hailed the judgment as a ‘landmark decision’ and said he would press ahead with the Ulez expansion on August 29 as planned.
‘The decision to expand the Ulez was very difficult and not something I took lightly, and I continue to do everything possible to address any concerns Londoners may have,’ he said.
The extended Ulez will see drivers in outer London pay a £12.50 daily fee from August 29 if their vehicles don’t meet the required emissions standards.
The new borders will reach Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey.
Today’s ruling comes in the wake of last week’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip parliamentary by-election, where Labour’s failure to win ex-PM Boris Johnson’s seat was blamed on concerns around the expansion of Ulez.
From Monday, access to the mayor’s £110m scrappage scheme will be extended to include all families in receipt of child benefit in London and every small business in the capital if they have a non-compliant vehicle.
At the end of last month, some £68m was still available via the programme.
Unified approach urged
Following today’s ruling, RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said: ‘We encourage the mayor and the government to get around the table and take a more strategic and unified approach to introducing the new zone.
‘Everybody wants cleaner air, but the scale of the challenge of getting many more people into Ulez-compliant vehicles cannot be underestimated.
‘A Freedom of Information request we made to the DVLA showed there could be up to 700,000 cars in the Greater London area that don’t conform to Ulez standards.
‘This figure doesn’t include those drivers from outside the capital who use their vehicles to commute into the Greater London area.’
He added: ‘While the principle of cleaning up London’s air is the right one, it has come at a time where drivers can ill-afford to replace their vehicles during a cost-of-living crisis.
‘This is being made by worse by new evidence which shows drivers are having to pay far more than they should to purchase a compliant vehicle on the second-hand car market.
‘We’d very much like to see additional support given to certain key workers, both inside the capital and in neighbouring counties, who depend on their vehicles to help them switch to cleaner ones as affordably as possible.’
Ulez ‘premium’
And in data published today, Auto Trader said drivers were having to pay an Ulez ‘premium’ of more than £3,000 in some cases to buy popular car models.
Its research focused on 2015 diesel models set to be caught by the Ulez extension and revealed the price premium being paid for models registered only a year later but – crucially – following the rules.
A used Volkswagen Golf 2016 model costs £3,601 more than a 2015 non-compliant model – an increase of 28 per cent from £9,445 to £13,046.
Similarly, a used Ford Focus 2016 model costs £2,828 more than a 2015 non-compliant model – a rise of 27 per cent from £10,336 from £7,508.
Other popular sellers in June displaying a large Ulez ‘premium’, said Auto Trader, include a 23 per cent or £2,220 difference between a 2015 and 2016 Nissan Qashqai, a 16 per cent or £2,594 jump between a 2015 and 2016 Land Rover Epoque, and a 13 per cent or £1,645 difference between the 2015 and 2016 BMW 3 Series.
