London ULEZ scrappage scheme extended

The Mayor of London’s vehicle scrappage scheme now covers all Londoners receiving child benefit and small businesses registered in London.

The scrappage scheme offers financial support to help replace polluting vehicles ahead of an expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched a scrappage scheme worth £110m in January 2023 to support Londonbased smaller businesses, sole traders and charities, Londoners on lower incomes and disabled Londoners to replace their older, more polluting vehicles with greener alternatives. The mayor then asked Transport for London (TfL) to look at variety of options to extend eligibility for the scrappage scheme which could be rolled out quickly and support as many people as possible. This included looking at using income thresholds and giving targeted support to certain groups.

The widening of eligibility is now considered to be the fairest and most deliverable option that would support those who need support the most.

The changes include Londoners receiving child benefit. There are currently 874,710 London families in receipt of child benefit, with 578,315 in outer London. If a parent earns £50,000 a year or under, they can claim the full entitlement of child benefit, and it is still worth families claiming child benefit if both parents earn less than £60,000 a year.

The current scheme is already open to Londoners on other benefits, such as Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment. This means those eligible can include anyone single earning up to £30,000, couples earning up to £40,000 per year and anyone with children and renting.

Businesses registered in London with fewer than 50 employees can now apply.

Bus Action Plan TfL has committed an additional 25km of bus lanes, contributing to the wider goal of increasing bus speeds by 10%.

Seb Dance, deputy mayor for transport, said: “Making journeys in the capital quicker and more efficient is a key priority of the mayor’s. The trial of this initiative resulted in quicker journey times for vulnerable patients, without any negative impact on bus journey times.”

Ian Abbs, chief executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Missing appointments is hugely frustrating for our patients and staff, so we are really pleased that this trial with TfL has reduced journey times by up to 16%. It is brilliant that this initiative is being rolled out more widely, meaning even more patients will benefit.”

Craig Harman, director of health and volunteering operations at St John Ambulance, said: “We support the NHS as part of our ambulance auxiliary work and allowing our ambulances to use the bus lanes when we are not responding to emergencies will improve our patients’ experience. In addition, during large events this will enable us to get our resources in the right place as quickly as possible to make sure they are ready to respond to any emergencies. We applaud this move by Transport for London.”

Currently, only those with up to 10 staff can apply. Charities operating in London are now able to scrap or retrofit up to three vans or minibuses instead of just one.

A new grace period will apply for sole traders, microbusinesses, small businesses, and registered charities who have ordered brand-new compliant vehicles, but have been informed that delivery will be delayed past 29 August when the larger zone goes live – or if they have booked an approved retrofit appointment for a non-compliant light van or minibus before that date.

The scrappage scheme will be kept under ongoing review. The Mayor has asked TfL to actively monitor applications from care workers to ensure they are benefitting from the money available.

TfL said the vast majority of vehicles in the capital are already ULEZ-compliant, so most Londoners will not need to pay the ULEZ charge, change their vehicle or retrofit their van or minibus. The latest data shows that 9 out of 10 cars, and around 8 out of 10 vans seen driving in the zone on an average day are already compliant.