Road to Zero

A Clean Air Zone (CAZ) is an area where targeted action is taken to improve air quality, in particular by discouraging the most polluting vehicles from entering the zone. No vehicle is banned in the zone, but those that do not have clean enough engines will have to pay a daily charge if they travel within the area.

For example, the Government has said that Birmingham needs a Clean Air Zone by January 2020* and that the city is required to reduce levels of NO2 in the air to a maximum average of 40μg/m3 as soon as possible.

As mentioned earlier in this guide, the five major cities outside London that have been identified to deliver pollution reduction targets as part of the national Clean Air Zone strategy are Birmingham, Leeds, Derby, Nottingham and Southampton.

At present, the only city that has named its Clean Air Zone ‘Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ)’ is London. Other cities will continue to use the name ‘Clean Air Zone’. However, these will have similar emissions standards in place as the London ULEZ and charge vehicles that do not meet these.

More information on this can be found below.

*See current Birmingham CAZ launch date

First introduced in 2003, the London Congestion Charge Zone is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Exempt vehicles must have CO₂ emissions of no more than 75g/km, a zero-emissions range of at least 20 miles and pay an annual registration fee of £10.

The London Congestion Charge Zone operates 7am to 10pm, every day except Christmas Day. The daily charge is £15.

Covering the same area as the Congestion Charge Zone, the London Ultra Low Emission Zone operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day.

Charges of £12.50 per day apply to petrol cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) that do not meet the Euro 4 standard, as well as diesel cars and LCVs that do not meet Euro 6.

The zone will be expanded in October 2021 to all roads within an area bounded by the North Circular and South Circular roads.

The Mayor of London has announced a £6,000 support package – made up of £3,500 scrappage allowance and £2,500 towards running costs, including insurance – for small businesses with ten or fewer employees and annual turnover of up to £632,000 (or £316,000 balance sheet total).

This is designed to support small businesses to replace up to three older diesel vans, that don’t meet ULEZ standards, with electric alternatives. All electric vans will also be exempt from the daily congestion charge, potentially saving thousands of pounds over their operational lifecycle.

This support is also available to London charities operating minibuses.

The VWFS | Fleet EVolve team can provide advice on how to benefit from this support.

Originally due to come into force on 1 January 2020*, Birmingham ULEZ covers the area inside the A4540 Middleway ring road (though not the ring road itself) and will operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

*The launch of Birmingham CAZ has been delayed until at least the end of 2020 originally due to the development of a vehicle checker tool by the government’s Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU) being delayed, but then the COVID-19 pandemic.

Councillor Waseem Zaffar, cabinet member for Transport and Environment at Birmingham City Council, said going ahead with the Clean Air Zone in January as planned, would be “completely unfair on residents, businesses and visitors to the city who would only have a matter of weeks, if not days, to make key choices about their travel behaviour or upgrade their vehicles. This is simply unacceptable.”^†

Charges of £8 per day will apply to petrol cars and LCVs that do not meet the Euro 4 standard, as well as diesel cars and LCVs that do not meet Euro 6. Certain exemptions apply to local businesses for a limited number of vehicles and a limited time.

^†Comment courtesy of Fleet News 18/06/19

As with Birmingham CAZ, this was originally due to come into force on 6 January 2020 but was put back to July 2020 because of the government’s delayed Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU) vehicle checker tool. It has since been delayed again due to COVID-19.

Leeds CAZ will not charge private cars and light commercial vehicles at any time, but charges will apply to non-compliant taxis, private hire vehicles, buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles.

This Ultra Low Emission Zone covers an area roughly bounded by the M1 between junctions 45 and 46, the outer ring road and the M621.

Councillor James Lewis, deputy leader for Leeds City Council, said: “It is extremely disappointing that Leeds has been forced to delay the introduction of one of the UK’s first Clean Air Zones because of the government’s failure to meet its own commitments to the two largest local authorities.

Leeds City Council has worked incredibly hard to make sure that the Clean Air Zone would be delivered on time, successfully meeting a number of challenging deadlines set by the government. Many local businesses have similarly invested both time and money into ensuring their own preparedness for January.” ^†

^†Comment courtesy of Fleet News 18/06/19

Derby council plans to introduce traffic control measures that it believes will achieve the necessary reductions in pollution levels within the first twelve months. The council currently does not plan to introduce a charging Clean Air Zone.

Rather than introduce a charging Clean Air Zone, Nottingham is focusing on updating its bus fleet through a retrofit programme and addressing emissions from older taxis.

The city will also receive funding support to update its own vehicle fleet with cleaner alternatives, including its waste collection vehicles. The council’s plan has been approved by Defra.

Southampton has determined that it will focus efforts on the most polluting taxis and buses in the city, rather than introduce a Clean Air Zone. These measures will enable Southampton to reach its pollution reduction target by 2020.

In addition to the five cities above, several districts and other cities across the UK are progressing with plans for their own pollution reduction schemes, some of which include Clean Air Zones.

Other measures being investigated include:

• limiting access to certain areas by time/fuel type/emissions
• differentiated parking costs.

In all of the above instances, electric cars and vans are the least likely vehicles to be affected.

The VWFS | Fleet EVolve team is best placed to help you to introduce electric vehicles to your fleet.