The updated zone is to be 18 times larger than the compact city centre area currently in force, recently re-elected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has pledged.
From 25 October, ULEZ signs will be put up on all streets within the North and South circular roads, and drivers of non-compliant vehicles will pay £12.50 a day to drive through the area.
To avoid the charge, petrol cars must comply with Euro 4 emissions standards, while diesel cars will need to comply with Euro 6. This means most petrol vehicles newly registered before January 2006 and most diesel vehicles registered before September 2015 will incur a fee. City Hall predicts this could be around 100,000 cars, 35,000 vans and 3,000 lorries every day.
Sadiq Khan says the ULEZ has helped to reduce roadside concentrations of harmful nitrogen dioxide in central London by nearly half since being introduced in April 2019.
The ULEZ, along with other measures to reduce emissions, have helped cut the number of state schools subject to illegal levels of pollution by 97% – from 455 schools in 2016 to only 14 in 2019.
Mr Khan said: “I pledge to be the greenest Mayor London’s ever had with a mandate from Londoners to put the environment and climate policies at the heart of my second term in the office. Today I am reaffirming my commitment to speed up the cleaning of London’s toxic air.
“In central London, the Ultra Low Emission Zone has already helped cut toxic roadside nitrogen dioxide pollution by nearly half and led to reductions that are five times greater than the national average.
“But pollution isn’t just a central London problem, which is why expanding the ULEZ later this year will benefit Londoners across the whole city and is a crucial step in London’s green recovery. There is no time to waste. We know pollution hits the poorest Londoners the hardest which is why I’m doing everything I can to improve health for all Londoners.”
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- The Ultra Low Emission Zone: what you need to know
Many drivers have already shifted to more environmentally friendly vehicles ahead of the Government’s ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, with more than half a million plug-in electric vehicles now on UK roads.
The expanded ULEZ will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year except Christmas Day.
Drivers can find out if their car will be subject to a charge by entering their vehicle registration on the TfL website.
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