Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion ‘failed to lower pollution levels’, report claims

Sadiq Khan’s controversial Ulez expansion to outer London failed to lower pollution levels, a report has found.

Bromley Council saw pollutants emitted by vehicles increase after the £12.50 daily charge was imposed last August, its environment committee heard in June.

The council measured no “overall lowering in pollution” in the months after Mr Khan expanded the zone to cover the whole of London, according to the Telegraph.

The report claims in November last year, three months after Ulez expansion, levels of pollutant nitrogen dioxide were higher across all the borough’s 32 air quality monitoring locations than they were in the preceding August.

The increase was blamed on “seasonal weather and temperature variations” and only eight of the locations saw more nitrogen dioxide by December last year than in August 2023.

When comparing the data with 2022, the report concludes: “What cannot be seen at present is an overall lowering in pollution levels that can be directly attributed to the implementation of Ulez in outer London.”

City Hall maintains its own research - released in July measuring the success of the Ulez expansion in reducing air pollution - proves the scheme is working “even better than expected”.

Bromley councillor Simon Fawthrop, who opposed expansion of the clean air zone, accused Mr Khan of a “tax grab” to raise revenues.

He said: “We always said that the Ulez expansion would have no, or negligible impact on air quality, so far it looks like we were spot on and Khan was wrong. It’s time for Sadiq Khan to finally come clean and confess this was nothing more than a regressive and iniquitous tax grab, by a Mayor desperate to raise revenue.”

Meanwhile, children living in London’s ultra-low emission zone were almost four times as likely to switch to travelling to school by cycling, walking or scootering than those residing outside the area, new research found.

A University of Cambridge study, published on Wednesday, examined 2,000 children aged six to nine across 84 primary schools in London and Luton.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “The Mayor is committed to improving air quality in London and has taken world-leading action to tackle toxic air pollution, which prematurely takes the lives of an estimated 4,000 Londoners each year.

“One year on, millions of Londoners are now breathing cleaner air and all the evidence shows that it was the right decision.

“The London-wide ULEZ six month report shows the scheme is working even better than expected, with pollutant emissions lower than if the Mayor hadn’t expanded the scheme.

“Air quality in London is improving at a faster rate than the average for the rest of England, and with 96 per cent of vehicles now ULEZ compliant, thousands of Londoners have made the switch to cleaner vehicles.

“It’s thanks to the ULEZ and the other policies the Mayor has put in place to tackle air pollution that we are now set to get London’s air within legal limits by 2025.”