Ministers should find the courage to stop the Mayor of London’s appalling Ulez expansion scheme
Source - Daily Telegraph 21/01/23
Now that Rishi Sunak has found the gumption to challenge Nicola Sturgeon over her putative law to allow people to change their gender at whim, he should turn his attention to Sadiq Khan and his expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez). Surely, the Government can find the powers to stop this highly-regressive charge, on the dual grounds that it is unfair and will be hugely damaging to the capital’s economy.
Yes, I know that it is fashionable to be in favour of devolving power to local people, but Ulez expansion is a prime example of how devolution often fails to reach the people themselves, but rather becomes lodged in the offices of mayors and other officials.
In order to expand Ulez to outer London, Khan was obliged to hold a consultation. But we found out last week just how loaded that process apparently was. With public support lagging, the mayor launched a digital campaign specifically on Instagram and Snapchat: social media channels used disproportionately by 18-24 year olds who are less likely to own cars. At the same time, the Mayor’s office excluded 5,000 objections on the grounds that they had been cut and pasted from the website of the Fair Fuel campaign group.
Ulez expansion doesn’t just affect Londoners in any case. It is highly disruptive to the lives of many people living in neighbouring areas. If you live in Hertfordshire, Surrey, Essex or Kent, you may need to pass through Greater London to reach local services – for which, depending on your vehicle, Sadiq Khan will charge you £12.50 a time.
Public transport in peripheral areas of London is often very poor – train services tend to run into the centre of the city, with few making transverse routes. In any case, plumbers, electricians, florists and other tradespeople cannot carry their wares around by train or bus. It is unfair – offensively so – that the Ulez charge will hit people of modest means, who cannot afford to replace their old vehicles, while raising nothing from the super-rich who turn up in Kensington every summer to race their brand new, high-powered sports cars around the streets.
Sutton and Harrow are among the councils that have already threatened to thwart Khan’s Ulez plans by withholding planning permission for the cameras and gantries required to police the scheme. But must it be left to them?
Ever since Covid, the Government has indulged Khan by bailing out Transport for London with grants. It did once try to insist in return that the mayor investigate automating the Tube, something which could save billions in the long run, making public transport in London much less dependent on subsidy. But if the London mayor is making a serious effort to do that, I can’t see any sign of it.
Indeed, the bailouts have continued in spite of Khan wasting taxpayers’ money on a commission into the legalisation of cannabis – something which lies well outside his jurisdiction.
It is time the Government got far tougher with Khan. Surely central government has ultimate say on what can and cannot happen on the King’s Highway. It should use its powers to strangle Ulez expansion at birth.
Ross Clark is the author of ‘Not Zero: How an Irrational Target Will Impoverish You, Help China (and Won’t Even Save the Planet)’, which will be published in February
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