LONDON: NO EXEMPTION FOR CLASSICS

Despite previous promises to the contrary, from next year it will cost more for older cars to enter the city...

From next year, classic car owners will have to pay a whopping £21.50 a day just to drive into the centre of London.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced the introduction of an additional £10 ‘T-charge’. The measure is being set up to reduce emissions, bringing the figure up to £21.50 including the existing £11.50 congestion charge.

From 2017, it will tax vehicles registered before 2005. The levy will apply to all vehicles with pre-Euro IV emission standards and will operate in the same area as the congestion charge zone between 7am and 6pm Monday to Friday.

Geoff Lancaster FBHVC communications director says: ‘Policy makers have not taken classic cars into account. It’s nonsense.’

A spokesperson for the Mayor’s office says there are no current proposals to exempt classic cars from the new T-charge, but adds that Khan and his team are prepared to listen to feedback from the classic car industry.

Classic car owners will be forced to pay an additional £10 ‘T-charge’ to enter the UK capital. The total to bring your classic into the centre of London now stands at £21.50, including the existing Congestion Charge.

The London Mayor’s office has confirmed that classic vehicles will not be exempt from its new ‘T-charge’, which will tax vehicles registered before 2005 entering the city centre from 2017.

The new tax will apply to all vehicles with pre-Euro IV emission standards and will operate in the same area as the Congestion Charge zone between 7am and 6pm, Monday to Friday.

A spokesman for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan says no decision had been made on an exact introduction date other than ‘from 2017’.

Historic vehicles are already exempt from a separate emissions area, the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), which is to be extended from central London to cover the North and South Circular roads from 7 September 2020.

However, while there are no current proposals to exempt classics from the T-charge, the Mayor and his team say they are prepared to listen to feedback. But Khan’s communications department gave contradicting advice to CCW, first saying all vehicles over 30 years old would be exempt from the T-charge.

It later backtracked after admitting it was confused between exemptions already in place for ULEZ and this new consideration for the T-charge, both part of Khan’s plans to ‘ battle London’s toxic air’.

Geoff Lancaster, the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) communications director, says: ‘It appears that despite lobbying and winning the exemption for ULEZ policy makers have not taken classic cars into account with the new plans for the T-charge.

‘It is total nonsense that you would have exemption for ULEZ and not for the T-charge. You would have a situation where you’d be checking your sat nav to make sure you drove your classic within ULEZ but not more centrally into the T-charge zone to attract an additional charge.’

The ULEZ requires cars and small vans to be Euro VI compliant for diesel engines (registered from September 1, 2015 so five years old or less in 2020) and Euro IV for petrol engines (registered from January 1, 2006 so 14 years old or less in 2020). Non-compliant vehicles are required to pay a daily charge of £12.50.

Mayor Sadiq Khan says: ‘ With nearly 10,000 people dying early every year in London due to exposure to air pollution, cleaning up London’s toxic air is now an issue of life and death.’

The public has until Friday 29 July to give any feedback on the first round of the consultation, while more detailed consultation will take place later this year. Tom Seymour

‘Policy makers have not taken classic cars into account. It’s total nonsense’ GEOFF LANCASTER, FBHVC