London’s ULEZ expansion: carrot and stick

London's Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) was expanded by a factor of 18 last month, and now covers 3.8 million people living or working in the capital.  

The case for expanding ULEZ was very strong. The original central zone has seen nitrous oxide pollution cut almost in half, around five times lower than other cities in the UK. London has a tough net-zero by 2030 target, and the ULEZ expansion is central to achieving that decarbonisation goal.  

By automatically charging drivers of more polluting vehicles every day, and applying fines for late payment, ULEZ is a powerful policy to influence vehicle buying behaviour and encourage the use of public transport, cycling and walking. But if applied too rigidly, it has the potential to penalise the poorest in society and stifle small businesses. That’s why, on top of other transition support measures, small businesses, charities and low-income individuals have been offered a grant scheme for scrapping their old polluting vehicles.

City Hall has provided £61m in funding for this scheme, covering more than 12,000 vehicles.   If London is to meet its net-zero target by 2030, then it needs to consider a similar carrot-and-stick approach to the adoption of electric vehicles, not just less-polluting ones. The same goes for the other cities around the UK considering or operating low emission and clean air zones, such as Glasgow, Bath, Birmingham, Manchester, Oxford, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Sheffield.  

A big part of democratising EV usage comes down to an affordable and available charging infrastructure. Nearly 40% of people don’t have access to charging at home, a figure that rises significantly in dense urban environments. Zest is a new company set up to close that gap, by proving how easy it can be for anyone to live with an EV, and making it easier for landowners to fund, install and operate more charge points. Zest is backed by the Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund (CIIF) - HM Government’s initiative to support faster expansion of public electric vehicle chargepoints.  

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