Wednesday 23 October 2019

New £25m car scrappage scheme for low income Londoners

A new £25 million fund aimed at getting more polluting cars off the roads has been launched for low income and disabled Londoners.

Drivers can get up to £2,000 for scrapping older and more polluting cars or motorcycles for cleaner ones under the ‘scrap for cash’ scheme.

It will run alongside the existing £23 million fund for microbusinesses, sole traders and charity owners who want to scrap older vans.

It comes ahead of the Ultra Low Emission Zone expansion in 2021 up to the North and South Circular roads.

According to the Mayor’s Office, polluting vehicles account for around 50% of London’s harmful emissions.

It adds air pollution has an economic cost to the capital of up to £3.7 billion every year and £20 billion cost to the country annually.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said: “Air pollution is a national health crisis that is stunting the lung development of our children and leading to thousands of premature deaths. City leaders across the world are united in raising the alarm about the dangers posed by poor air quality.

“Here in London with our bold plans we have already cut pollution by a third in central London where we have implemented the world’s first Ultra Low Emission Zone and worked tirelessly to clean up the bus and taxi fleet.

“We need government ministers to follow London’s lead and help clean our filthy air once and for all, by toughening up targets to meet the WHO air quality guidelines by 2030 and supporting a national vehicle renewal fund that will help all UK motorists to ditch their polluting cars.”