Vehicle pollution zone to cover all of London

Heavily polluting vehicles will have to pay to enter the entire metropolitan area of London from next year, the British capital’s mayor said yesterday. Sadiq Khan said the ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) would be expanded from August 29 beyond its current confines, to take in the entire 9mn people of Greater London. Announcing a parallel expansion of bus services in outer London, he argued that air pollution from older vehicles was making Londoners “sick from cradle to the grave”. The ULEZ had already proven “transformational”, the mayor said, and its extension would mean “five million more people will be able to breathe cleaner air and live healthier lives”.