Fresh off the back of the expansion of the London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has walked back his plans to enforce a zero emission zone in the centre of the capital.
Mr. Khan’s plans to bring a zero emission zone to Central London were announced back in 2018, but have been out of the public focus with the attention instead taken by the implementation and subsequent expansions (including that on 29 August which brought its boundaries out to cover all London boroughs) of the ULEZ zone in the capital.
The Financial Times reported yesterday that the London Mayor’s office had confirmed the withdrawal of the plans for the zero emission zone.
However, it also said that individual London boroughs could implement their own zero emission schemes with support from the Transport for London (TfL).
The backtracking of Mr. Khan’s zero emission zone plans for Central London came after he announced over the weekend that he would also not be implementing the pay-per-mile transport scheme that had been - like the central zero emission zone - a part of his transport plan to help achieve ‘net zero’ emissions for London by 2030 as set out in his 2020 London Mayoral election campaign.
The London Mayor’s retraction of previously planned policies also comes after the Uxbridge by-election, which was won by the Conservatives. The result was blamed by both Conservative and Labour politicians on what was then the upcoming ULEZ expansion which was realised on 29 August.
