By Mathew Carr
Aug. 4, 2023: See this: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66398942 and the two snips below for non subscribers of the Times.
BBC: “Eligibility for a scrappage scheme has been extended to more people ahead of the expansion the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) to all of London. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said all Londoners would be able to access up to £2,000 to replace non-compliant cars, yet demand is for the subsidy is set to be higher than supply, according to the BBC.”
There might be a better way
CarrZee: The political problems being faced by Khan over his program to make more users of high-emitting cars pay for climate damage can be tackled by lowering the price initially for more financially vulnerable drivers.
This would be better than delaying the program’s wider introduction, which is due to start on Aug. 29.
Such a move to cut the cost for poorer people would protect struggling voters from being overly punished under the program.
BBC: Drivers of the most polluting vehicles will have to pay £12.50 a day to drive anywhere in Greater London.
Eg the cost of the most polluting cars could be cut initially to £2 a day for people earning less than, say, £30,000 per year, giving them more time to replace their car or meet the higher daily payments. The daily cost could build back up to £12.50 over 5 years or so for those people only.
All of this political controversy could have been avoided had the Conservative national government expanded its wider carbon pricing program to the road-transport industry and cut fossil-fuel subsidies.
Khan is from the opposition Labour Party.
BBC: Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall said of Khan’s plan to widen access to scrappage payments to boost the policy’s popularity: “This is too little, too late from Sadiq Khan, who is facing mounting pressure from Londoners and his own party.”
CarrZee: It is shameful the Conservative candidate is seeking to exploit the situation politically, because Hall’s party at the national level extended the problem of bad market structure for cars in the UK by sticking its head firmly in the sand.
The UK prime minister from the Conservative party, known as the Tory party, is Rishi Sunak.
Political problems from car emissions are being faced in many cities across the UK and beyond. See this from the Times newspaper.
Dundee’s LEZ has caused a stooshie, new UN climate chief Skea admits (stooshie is a Scottish word for an uproar or a commotion)
Protect disadvantaged groups: Skea
More criticism of the Tories
(WordPress software faults created problems with the initial version of this story)
GIF: Khan
(Corrects May 4, 2024 to spell Khan correctly throughout. I accidently had earlier spelled his name a few times as Kahn.)