LONDON: April 08, 2019. London has introduced the world’s toughest vehicle emission regulations with charges of £100 a day for trucks, buses and coaches and £12.50 a day for cars, vans and motorbikes that do not meet Euro 4 or Euro 6 emissions standards.

Polluting vehicles account for around 50 per cent of London’s harmful NOx air emissions. Air pollution is an economic cost to the capital of up to £3.7 billion a year and £20 billion to the UK as a whole.

The new Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will apply to Central London from today and Greater London from October 2021 (pictured) to help address London’s toxic air health crisis. The most recent data shows more than two million Londoners still live in areas that exceed legal limits for NO2 of which 400,000 are children under the age of 18.

King’s College London research suggests the new measures will bring London’s air quality into legal compliance in six years rather than 193.

“This is a landmark day for our city. Our toxic air is an invisible killer responsible for one of the biggest national health emergencies of our generation,” commented Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. “I simply refuse to be yet another politician who ignores it. The ULEZ is the centrepiece of our plans to clean up London’s air – the boldest plans of any city on the planet, and the eyes of the world are on us.

“This is also about social justice - people in the most deprived parts of London, who are least likely to own a car, suffer the worst effects of harmful air pollution. I will not stand by and watch children grow up with under-developed lungs in our city. The ULEZ is a vital step towards helping combat London’s illegal air,” he added.

The London Mayor recently launched a £48 million scheme for microbusinesses and charities, as well as people on low income who may struggle to pay ULEZ charges and want to scrap older, more polluting vehicles.

Bruce Bratley from recycling business First Mile commented: ”We’re committing to minimising our environmental footprint and have introduced a number of measures over the past three years to meet ULEZ emissions standards, including the use of cargo bikes and electric vehicles. We need to use a number of heavy goods vehicles for our collections, but we've significantly invested in our fleet to ensure that these are the greenest they can possibly be and are fully compliant with ULEZ."