Presumably this is to try and pacify those who are criticising the ULEZ expansion to outer London. But the amount of money involved (£50 million) is nowhere near enough to enable those who qualify to buy a replacement new vehicle.
It’s also offered on a “first come, first served basis” and the pot will quickly run dry. In addition it only applies to those who live in London so the many tens of thousands of people who live in the home counties but commute into outer London will not qualify. This is what Mayoral candidate Susan Hall had this to say: “”This is too little, too late from Sadiq Khan, who is facing mounting pressure from Londoners and his own party. Thousands of families, small businesses and charities face financial ruin because of Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion, which will do next to nothing to improve air quality”. That’s spot on.
The only solution to this madness is to either replace the Mayor at the ballot box in May or for Government to remove his powers to act like a dictator, which he has been misusing. Repeat after me: “There is no air quality health crisis”. It’s just scaremongering by the Mayor to raise taxes to fix his financial mismanagement of TfL”.
Mayor’s Press Release: https://www.london.gov.uk/media-centre/mayors-press-release/MAYOR-ANNOUNCES-SCRAPPAGE-EXPANSION
On a personal note, I did not qualify for the original scrappage scheme even though I am disabled, hold a blue badge and live in London. That has not changed. Scrappage schemes are always severely limited and only enable you to buy a second-hand poor-quality vehicle.
Roger Lawson Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drivers_London
You can “follow” this blog by entering your email address in the box below. You will then receive an email alerting you to new posts as they are added.
Still no comment or help for recreational vehicles such as Coach Built Motor Homes that add very little to pollution and are not driven as daily vehicles on GLA – London roads,
Is the air REALLY that “filthy”?
Has mass 20mph roads improved air quality?
Has taking away road space improved air quality?
Have the measuring stations been ‘cherry-picked’ for obtaining the most damning results?
Why does so much foliage seem to flourish beside the busiest of roads if air quality is so bad?
Why does Comrade Khan not ‘Cycle & Walk’ instead of using a fleet of Range Rovers to get about, as he is expecting us to do?
What I don’t understand is why nobody in the mainstream media will drill down into Khan’s “alternate facts” and reveal them for the fantasy they are,we already know that expansion will do little to improve air quality, it isn’t going to save any lives let alone the 4,000 that Khan bleats on about and we know is just an extrapolated figure, not real people and not based on any evidence. Khan will however be responsible for the people who keel over from the stress and anxiety he has imposed, and those so unhappy they are considering taking their own lives, who having contacted TFL are advised to contact MIND.
He is responsible for both a cost of living crisis and a mental health crisis.
But another thing that gets me is when it is reported that now everyone in London with a non compliant vehicle can get the scrappage, they might now be eligible to apply, but as you point out, there isn’t anywhere near enough money to pay everyone. Original scrappage £110m (less £7m admin) Khan has put another £50m into the pot so we have £153m, TFL estimate there are 160,000 non compliant cars and 42,000 vans, at 2k a car and 7k a van that is £614m, and that doesn’t take into account the £1,000 for motorcycles and the extra money for minibuses and wheelchair adapted vehicles etc. But as we know the true level of non compliant vehicles in Outer London as confirmed by the DVLA is 4 times that figure, so we probably need a scrappage fund of £2.5 billion and that doesn’t include those outside London.
Obscene as it would be to spend that amount of money on destroying so many perfectly good legal vehicles, the scrappage isn’t enough to buy a compliant vehicle and there are not enough compliant vehicles out there to replace all the non compliant ones.
Only divine intervention or somewhat less likely the last minute intervention of the Government is going to save us now, so we need to ensure Khan is kicked out on his scrawny backside at the next Mayoral election in May.
With this in mind please support my parliamentary petition, it only has a few weeks to run – Give everyone within the M25 a vote for London Mayor and GLA member https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/634216