London’s ULEZ expansion goes live

AS of Monday 25 October, London’s ultralow emission zone (ULEZ) is expanding. It currently covers the same area of central London as the Congestion Charge, but from the 25th it will engulf every street within the North and South Circular roads. That means the ULEZ will stretch as far as Ealing in the west, Haringey in the north, Newham in the east, and Lewisham in the south.

Pre-Euro 4 petrol cars (roughly those built before 2006) and pre-Euro 6 diesels (made prior to 2016) will be non-compliant. Owners will be fined £160 – reduced to £80 if paid within 14 days – should they fail to pay the £12.50 daily charge. Unlike the C-Charge, the ULEZ is in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

London was the first city in the UK to launch a clean-air zone affecting private vehicles when it implemented the ULEZ in 2019. Birmingham has since followed suit, introducing a similar area in June 2021. Bristol is set to do the same in summer 2022, having backpedalled on plans to ban diesel cars from its city centre entirely.

Bath has also launched a clean-air zone; it doesn’t affect private cars, but taxis, vans, buses and HGVs are targeted. Portsmouth will launch the same type of clean-air zone on 20 November this year, but again, this will not affect private cars.

The Transport for London (TfL) website features a ULEZ compatibility checker, while gov.uk has a similar tool for clean-air zones outside of the capital.

In some cases, models with Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel certification have not been recognised as such by TfL and have been subject to pay the ULEZ. Owners of these cars have to provide proof of Euro standard for their specific vehicle to TfL to qualify for an exemption to the ULEZ charge.

Last month, it was revealed that 330,000 of the 980,000 ULEZ penalty charge notices that have been issued since April 2019 have yet to be paid.

“As of Monday 25 October, the new ULEZ will engulf every street within the North and South Circular roads“