£10 toxic tax for London drivers to hit petrol AND diesel owners

DRIVERS of cars more than a decade old will have to pay a £10 ‘toxicity charge’ to drive in central London.

The anti-pollution levy will affect vehicles that do not meet European emission standards – the majority of models prior to 2006.

The T-charge will be added to the congestion charge to generate a daily bill of £21.50.

Other cities are expected to follow the lead of mayor Sadiq Khan.

Air pollution is linked to 40,000 premature deaths a year and this week the European Commission sent the Government a final warning over illegal smog in 16 British cities.

Diesel cars are far more polluting than petrol, producing more of the tiny particles and nitrogen oxides that are linked to asthma as well as to heart and lung diseases.

A study published yesterday suggested vehicle pollution may be behind 4,500 premature births every year in Britain.

A typical diesel vehicle emits ten times as much nitrogen dioxide as a petrol equivalent – and old diesel cars produce hugely more levels of particles and other pollutants.

The new toxicity charge will also apply to old petrol cars – which produce more greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

More than nine million cars did not meet the Euro 4 emission standards at the end of 2015, according to research by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Limited. Roughly two thirds were petrol.

The Euro 4 standard sets out acceptable limits for various toxins in exhaust emissions.

Most cars sold before 2006 did not meet these standards – although some manufacturers were meeting them three or four years earlier.

Transport for London will use existing congestion zone licence plate-recognition cameras to monitor cars coming into the zone. The charge applies from 7am to 6pm on weekdays, except bank holidays.

Drivers can check an online vehicle compliance checker on the Transport for London website to see whether they will need to pay the charge.

Diesel cars had been promoted since the 1970s as an environmentally-friendly choice because they emit less carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas which causes global warming. Successive governments have put tax incentives on diesel cars, allowing drivers to pay less vehicle excise duty.

The Blair government encouraged motorists to buy diesel so that it could hit EU carbon emissions targets, cutting diesel duty by 3p in the 2001 budget.

Mr Khan said: ‘It’s staggering that we live in a city where the air is so toxic that many of our children are growing up with lung problems.

‘If we don’t make drastic changes now we won’t be protecting the health of our families in the future.’

He said the T-charge was the ‘toughest emission standard of any major city’.

Mr Khan also repeated his call for the Government to bring in a national diesel scrappage fund and a clean air act to address pollution.

James Thornton, chief executive of environmental law firm ClientEarth, which has taken the Government to the Supreme and High Courts over

‘Polluted no-go zones’

air pollution, said: ‘The T-charge is absolutely essential to protect human health in the short term and pave the way for the mayor’s expanded ultra-low emission zone – but it needs to go further and be applied to more diesel vehicles.’

Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: ‘This T-charge is an important step from the Mayor of London to deter our most polluting and harmful vehicles from entering central London.

‘Places like Oxford Street regularly break World Health Organisation and EU limits on air that is safe for us to breathe.

‘We’ve heard from people living with lung disease that the pollution levels are so high that parts of the city have become a no-go zone.’

The T-charge will be introduced on October 23 and apply to cars, vans, minibuses, buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles.