The rollout of Greater Manchester’s clean air zone has been delayed until July.
The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, had requested more time to allow local authorities to review plans after evidence suggested the city was unlikely to meet legal emissions limits by the original date of 2024.
Evidence provided by Greater Manchester authorities suggested the impact of issues such as Covid-19 on supply chains and the price and availability of secondhand vehicles will make it harder for people to upgrade to cleaner vehicles, the government said.
In a statement, the government said it had “carefully considered” Burnham’s request and that the environment secretary, George Eustice, had “agreed to allow a short delay”.
It said: “This will allow Greater Manchester to provide further evidence and a revised plan by July setting out how it will deliver legal levels of NO2 [nitrogen dioxide] as soon as possible, and no later than 2026.
“In making this decision, the environment secretary has made it clear that it is his priority to fulfil the government’s legal obligations to deliver compliance with NO2 limits in the shortest time possible.”
The scheme, which would impose daily charges on some high-emission vehicles, excluding private cars, had been due to begin at the end of May.
At a press conference, Burnham told reporters the 2024 deadline could not be met due to the pandemic.
He said: “The vehicles just simply aren’t available to get the change in that time frame. So the risk with that situation is people can’t get the vehicle so even if they want to change and do the right thing they can’t. So then they’re just left hit with the charge.”
Greater Manchester’s clean air zone will require lorries, buses and coaches that breach NO2 emission standards to pay £60 a day, while vans, taxis and minibuses will be charged between £7.50 and £10 a day.
About 285,000 private cars licensed in the region that already breach air pollution limits are exempt from the plans.
Burnham said his office and the 10 other local councils in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) would now look again at the scheme and present the government with another plan later in the year.
On Wednesday, a war of words broke out in parliament over the scheme after Boris Johnson described the clean air zone plans as “completely unworkable” and said they would “do damage to businesses and residents”.
Burnham said he had “never been the instigator nor the final decision-maker in this scheme”. The clean air zone was planned after the government ordered all regions to bring down air pollution by 2024.
Campaigners have previously warned that pausing the clean air zone “would be a serious blow for people’s health”.
There are 152 locations across the 10 local authority areas with illegal NO2 levels.
Each year in Greater Manchester, more than 1,000 deaths have air pollution as a contributory cause, Burnham said.
