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Taxi drivers and business leaders call for diesel scrappage scheme Taxi drivers and business leaders call for diesel scrappage scheme
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Taxi drivers and business leaders have added their voices to the growing campaign calling on ministers to introduce a diesel scrappage scheme to tackle dangerous levels of air pollution.Taxi drivers and business leaders have added their voices to the growing campaign calling on ministers to introduce a diesel scrappage scheme to tackle dangerous levels of air pollution.
A broad alliance of business organisations and environmental charities has written to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, urging him to introduce a system in next week’s budget to compensate motorists switching from diesel to more environmentally friendly vehicles.A broad alliance of business organisations and environmental charities has written to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, urging him to introduce a system in next week’s budget to compensate motorists switching from diesel to more environmentally friendly vehicles.
Senior MPs, environmental groups and senior doctors are part of the coalition who say a scrappage scheme is essential if the government is to tackle the air pollution crisis affecting many towns and cities in the UK. Senior MPs, environmental groups and doctors are part of the coalition which says a scrappage scheme is essential if the government is to tackle the air pollution crisis affecting many towns and cities in the UK.
The letter – signed by organisations including the Federation of Small Businesses, London First, Greenpeace and the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) – supports proposals put forward by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for a national diesel scrappage fund that he argues would financially compensate motorists and enable the government to get a grip on illegal levels of toxic air.The letter – signed by organisations including the Federation of Small Businesses, London First, Greenpeace and the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) – supports proposals put forward by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for a national diesel scrappage fund that he argues would financially compensate motorists and enable the government to get a grip on illegal levels of toxic air.
It states: “We believe the mayor has adopted a cost-effective approach that minimises risks and simplifies administration for government.” The move comes as environmental experts and senior polticians warn that the toxic air is having a major impact on people’s health in towns and cities across the UK - not just in London.
It says Khan’s proposals “rebalance the financial cost of improving our air away from the individual – unlocking significant emission reductions while reducing the cost for those least able to afford to upgrade their vehicle or change how they drive”. Neil Parish, chair of the environment, food and rural affairs select committee, told the Guardian that despite the focus on the capital, the pollution crisis was a “country wide challenge”, with more than 40% of UK councils breaching legal air pollution limits, according to the latest figures.
Air pollution causes 40,000 early deaths in the UK and costs the country £27.5bn a year, according to a government estimate. MPs have called it a public health emergency. “It’s common knowledge that air pollution is a big problem in the capital, but it’s also a significant public health problem in other British towns and cities,” Parish said.
On Saturday the Guardian revealed that tens of thousands of children and young people at more than 800 nurseries, schools and colleges in London faced dangerous and illegal levels of toxic air, much of it caused by diesel cars. He added the capital was, in many ways, better equipped to deal with air pollution - with a “world class, integrated transport system” and falling car ownership.
The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, indicated the government might bow to pressure, saying motorists should be wary of buying diesel cars, adding: “We’re going to have to really migrate our car fleet, and our vehicle fleet more generally, to cleaner technology.” However, he said that diesel “was not going to disappear”. “Many other large British cities are more reliant on the car [and] air pollution levels remain stubbornly high,” he said.
Under Khan’s proposals, which can be adapted for other UK cities, there would be: Air pollution causes 40,000 early deaths in the UK and costs the country £27.5bn a year, according to government estimates. MPs have called it a public health emergency.
Payments of £3,500 to scrap up to 70,000 polluting vans and minibuses in London and a national fund to support charities and small businesses that often own older diesel vans and minibuses. On Saturday the Guardian revealed that tens of thousands of children and young people at more than 800 nurseries, schools and colleges in London faced dangerous and illegal levels of toxic air, much of it from diesel cars.
A credit scheme valued at £2,000 to help low-income households in cities scrap up to 130,000 polluting cars, with incentives for car clubs and public transport. But the government’s own figures show the problem is not confined to the captial with 37 out of 43 zones in the UK breaching legal levels of nitrogeon dioxide.
Payments of £1,000 to help scrap up to 10,000 older polluting London taxis (in addition to extra Transport for London help for drivers to upgrade to greener taxis). During a high court challenge to its air pollution policies last year it also emerged that there had been a draft government plan for 16 low emission zones, which polluting vehicles are charged to enter, in cities outside London. However the number was cut to just five on cost grounds.
Paul Morozzo, from Greenpeace, backed the plans, saying it was now clear diesel fumes were “toxic to human health”. The government lost the case and has been given until April to come up with new tougher proposals.
“A scrappage fund is one of the niftiest ways to get dirty diesels off our roads. And for maximum take-up it should offer credits for car sharing or public transport, as a lower-cost alternative to buying a brand-new cleaner car under the scheme.” The appeal was bought by ClientEarth whose lawyer Anna Heslop said that while there “is rightly a lot of attention on London, as it has the worst air pollution in the UK, what people perhaps don’t realise is that there are illegal levels of air pollution across Britain.”
Steve McNamara, the general secretary at the LTDA, said cab drivers were committed to tackling the decline in the capital’s air quality. She called on the government to “introduce a national network of clean air zones” and support people to move away from diesel vehicles.
He said: “We fully support the mayor’s proposals for a national vehicle scrappage fund, which will make it fairer and easier for drivers to meet the cost associated with decommissioning the oldest, most polluting vehicles, helping us to become the greenest cab fleet of any city in the world.” The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, indicated at the weekend that the government may bow to pressure for a scrappage scheme, saying motorists should be wary of buying diesel cars.
Two polls released this week show that only one in 10 people across the country think the air they breath is bad that figure rises to two thirds in London.
Oliver Hayes, from Friends of the Earth which carried out one of the polls, said: “Whilst Londoners are starting to understand the air pollution crisis, in part due to welcome attention from politicians and the media, outside of the capital it’s a very different story.”
However, that may be beginning to change. Andy Burnham, Labour candidate to become first mayor of Greater Manchester, said air pollution was a major issue in the campaign.
He said the city had breached its legal air pollution limits for nitrogen dioxide every year since 2011.
“The situation in Manchester and other big cities could even be worse than it is in London because traffic congestion is an increasing problem.”
Last year Burnham obtained figures showing that more than 64,000 people were admitted to hospital in Greater Manchester with respiratory problems - a 26 per cent increase on 2010 - and amongst them over 14,000 children under the age of four.
He has now written to the prime minister calling for greater powers for mayors to tackle the issue.
“I want powers to restrict diesel vehicles be they HGV or cars... The situation for the people of Manchester as it stands is simply not acceptable.”