Air quality and health campaigners have broadly welcomed the launch of a £10 ‘Toxicity Charge’ on London’s dirtiest vehicles this week, but some concern has been raised about its effect on the capital’s small businesses.

 

Drivers of older, more polluting petrol and diesel vehicles will now be required to pay the new T-Charge on top of the existing Congestion Charge to travel in central London between 7am and 6pm during the week.

 

Mayor Sadiq Khan has launched the initiative to help clean up the capital’s “lethal air” and prepare Londoners for the planned introduction of an Ultra Low Emission Zone from April 2019.

 

“The shameful scale of the public health crisis London faces, with thousands of premature deaths caused by air pollution, must be addressed,” he said. “London now has the world’s toughest emission standard with older more polluting vehicles paying up to £21.50 a day to drive in the centre of the city.”

 

It is thought that up to 34,000 vehicles every month could be liable for the T-Charge, which affects those that do not meet the Euro 4 standards for both particulate matter and NOx emissions. Since its announcement in February Transport for London reports that the daily number of pre-Euro 4 vehicles driving into the Congestion Charge zone has decreased by 15%, with further reductions now expected.

 

Commenting on the T-Charge, Greenpeace clean air campaigner Rosie Rogers said: “It’s just not possible to clean up London’s air without cleaning up London’s roads, and that’s why we support the Mayor’s first steps to tackle air pollution by introducing the T-Charge.

 

“The ball is now in the court of our national Government to grasp the urgency of the crisis and take more meaningful action to reduce the illegal levels of air pollution seriously harming people’s health across the UK.” 

 

Professor Stephen Holgate from the Royal College of Physicians also welcomed the implementation of the T-Charge, noting that air pollution has a substantial impact on many chronic long term conditions.

 

However the move could contribute to the closure of firms and the loss of jobs according to the Federation of Small Businesses. “While our members understand the need to improve London’s air quality, we are concerned that the small business community is disproportionately bearing the brunt of the cost of this scheme,” said the Federation’s London policy chair Sue Terpilowski. She called for the Mayor to put in place supportive measures including a small business diesel scrappage scheme.

 

Meanwhile the Greater London Authority Conservatives’ environment spokesman Shaun Bailey commented: “Sadiq Khan tells us he is desperate to clean up London’s harmful emissions but this road tax won’t make a dent.” He claims that TfL assessments show that the T-Charge will have a ‘negligible’ impact on air quality, reducing NOx emissions by only 1-3%.

 

Campaign group FairFuelUK is preparing a legal challenge to the scheme. Its founder Howard Cox said: “The Mayor’s decision to strike hard working drivers with an ineffective new toxic tax was unlawful, acting completely outside of his official powers.”

 

(Photo: Alastair Lloyd)