Sadiq Khan says he ditched plans to introduce a road-user charging scheme because he was able to expand the Ulez to the Greater London boundary.
In an interview with the Standard, he reiterated an assurance that a pay-per-mile type of scheme was “not on my agenda” – despite it being part of his transport blueprint for the capital.
He also dismissed speculation among his Tory rivals that, despite being selected as Labour’s 2024 mayoral candidate, he plans to drop out of the race at the 11th hour – potentially to return to Westminster to enable him to claim a place in a future Labour government.
“I’m definitely standing,” he told the Standard. “I ain’t going nowhere, bruv.”
Last month, Mr Khan was asked at mayor’s question time about the work that Transport for London was doing to consolidate schemes such as the Ulez and the congestion charge into a “simple and fair pay-per-mile scheme” by the end of the decade.
He replied: “As long as I am mayor, we’re not going to have pay-per-mile.”
Speaking to the Standard, Mr Khan added: “There are many, many more things we are doing to make our city greener, fairer, safer and more prosperous. Road user charging though, is off the table, it’s not on my radar, it’s not on the agenda.”
He said expanding the Ulez to the Greater London boundary in August had been a difficult decision but the “right thing to do” to tackle an “invisible killer” – toxic air pollution.
In his book Breathe, which was published in May, Mr Khan wrote about a “need to go further” to tackle toxic air in London.
He wrote: “We need to go further. And we intend to. We have plans to make public transport better and more appealing, plans for a further £3m mass tree-planting initiative, and plans to introduce a new, more comprehensive road-user charging system, to be implemented by the end of the decade at the latest.”
Asked if he had slammed the brakes on road-user charging because of the backlash against the Ulez expansion, Mr Khan said: “The road user charging scheme has been talked about by Boris Johnson, by TfL, by transport authorities across the country, by [Rishi] Sunak and indeed in my mayor’s transport strategy.
“But that was without the context of the biggest clean air zone in the world – that was before the decision to expand the Ulez.
“In relation to road user charging, no road user charging is planned by me, because there are other things we can focus on to reduce air pollution and tackle the climate emergency.
“The biggest clean air zone in the world, improving the quality of air for nine million people, is one policy. More electric buses is another policy, retrofitting our homes is another policy, planting more trees is another policy, rewilding our city is another policy.”
TfL is due to publish, by the first week in November, data outlining the first month of the Greater London Ulez.
TfL’s modelling suggests the Ulez expansion “will reduce the number of noncompliant cars each day from 160,000 to 46,000, and the number of non-compliant vans from 42,000 to 26,000”.
It adds: “Overall, the scheme is forecast to lead to 146,000 fewer car trips (a reduction of nearly two per cent).
“It should also reduce London-wide road transport emissions of nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide by an estimated 5.4 per cent. This is equivalent to a 6.9 per cent reduction in outer London.”
Mr Khan hopes the data will show a reduction in the number of non-compliant vehicles being driven in outer London. It is these vehicles that attract the £12.50 daily levy.
Mr Khan said: “What I would hope to see – it’s always unwise for a politician to say what they hope, before the results are in – are fewer non-compliant vehicles.
“What I would hope to see are more compliant vehicles. That is the hope. It may take some time. It may take more than a month. Let’s wait and see.”
He said about £60m remained in the Ulez scrappage fund, offering £2,000 grants for Londoners wanting to scrap or upgrade their non-compliant vehicles.
“For those who have got a non-compliant vehicle, the good news is we have got a very generous scrappage scheme,” he said. “Every single Londoner with a vehicle that is not compliant or a small business or a charity will now get support.”
Asked what impact he expected the Ulez expansion to have on next May’s elections, Mr Khan said: “We will have to wait and see. My mission is for London to be greener, fairer, safer and more prosperous.
“The evidence from central London and inner london is that [Ulez] is successful. Clearly I’m hoping that outer London is successful as well. Londoners don’t want their children growing up with asthma or stunted lungs or people dying prematurely because of toxic air.
“My job over the next few months is to explain to Londoners why the decision to expand Ulez was taken, and at the same time [ensuring] we have got sufficient funds to support Londoners.”
