Air quality improved by ULEZ expansion says City Hall

Air quality in London has seen a “positive impact with harmful emissions from cars and vans reduced as a result of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) expansion, a City Hall report has found. Roadside pollution in outer London had fallen by an average of 3.5% over what it would be without the scheme over the first six months since it was extended in August 2023.

Nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions from cars are thought to have fallen by 13% while vans have seen a 7% fall. This is from drivers either scrapping or cutting down on driving older and more polluting vehicles, especially those with older diesel engines. This improvement in air quality has been “better than predicted” according to London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

However, the Tories claim that hundreds of millions of pounds has been spent on the scheme which they say has had resulted in a “minimal reduction” in air pollution.

The six-month report by the Greater London Authority (GLA) assessed the impact on air quality and pollution based on estimates on what the figures may have been had ULEZ not expanded. The reduction, it found, was equivalent to taking 200,000 cars from the road for an entire year.

The authors of the report also said that it was “not straightforward” to isolate the impact of ULEZ and its expansion. This is because it was hard to separate it from other policies including the growing zero-emissions bus fleets and stricter regulations on lorries and taxies. The report, they say, examined the impact that all of these policies have had on London’s air quality.