Diesel scrappage scheme 'is on its way'

9:57 am, February 3, 2017

GOVERNMENT officials are working on a scrappage scheme for diesel cars and it could be here within months, according to a national newspaper.

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are drawing up proposals whereby owners who trade in their polluting vehicles could get money back or a reduction on low-emission cars, in a bid to reduce emissions and improve air quality nationwide.

The newspaper quoted a government source as saying that the Treasury would pay for the scrappage initiative. Areas in the country where air pollution was worst could be the focus of it.

The Telegraph also claimed that during a private meeting with industry experts a fortnight ago, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said he was in favour of a scrappage scheme but stressed that it had to be targeted properly. At the meeting, Grayling was also said to be committed to getting more electric cars on the roads as well as more charging points.

Grayling has acknowledged that high pollution levels have to be dealt with now by ministers, telling the House of Commons: ‘We have to find the right way to migrate the nature of the cars on our roads and the vehicles on our roads to a point where they cause much less of a pollution problem than they do at the moment.’

However, the Telegraph reported a DfT spokesman as saying there were ‘no plans’ at the moment to bring in such a scheme, while a Treasury spokesman simply said: ‘The government continues to keep all taxes under review and any changes are announced at fiscal events.’