Drivers warned: may have to pay thousands to qualify for ULEZ scrappage scheme.

Today is an important day for motorists across the UK capital, as London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has now been expanded to cover all boroughs in Greater London. This means that drivers with non-ULEZ compliant vehicles will now have to pay £12.50 a day to drive anywhere within Greater London.

To help Londoners transition to the new rules, Sadiq Khan announced a scrappage scheme, where anyone with an eligible non-ULEZ compliant vehicle can get a £2000 grant if they scrap it. To be eligible for the scheme, the car must have a valid MOT, road tax and insurance, have been owned for at least one year and be registered to the recipients address.

Unfortunately, this means that drivers could be forced to fork out thousands to get old cars fixed, only for them to be scrapped and crushed. One man told The Sun that he would have to pay £760 to make his 1994 BMW roadworthy again in order to become eligible for the scheme. He expressed his frustration, saying: “It’s a crazy situation, absolutely absurd. I can’t believe I’m being forced to shell out a fortune fixing it up just to have it crushed days later. It seems to run against the ethos of the ULEZ scheme. This is a much-loved car that has been taxed, insured and MOT’d for years.”

However, a TfL spokesperson defended the scheme, saying: “Thousands of Londoners die prematurely each year as a result of toxic pollution. Children are growing up with stunted lungs and thousands of people are developing life-changing illnesses due to pollution, such as cancer, lung disease, dementia and asthma. The aim of the scrappage scheme is get the most polluting vehicles off the roads.”

The purpose of ULEZ is to cut down on pollution and to make London's air cleaner. According to TfL, 94% of vehicles in the original ULEZ zone now meet the strict emission standards on a daily basis, which is up from 39% in 2017 when the scheme first came into force. The levels of harmful nitrogen oxide poisoning have decreased by almost half in central London since 2017, but pollution is not just a problem which affects central London. TfL says that the greatest number of air pollution deaths occur in outer London - this is why ULEZ must be expanded in order to help give the five million Londoners in outer boroughs cleaner air to breathe.

For the latest updates on ULEZ, follow The Agency's ULEZ live blog. For the latest news from the capital visit The Agency's visit Metro's London news hub.

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