Labour’s ULEZ, road tax and electric car law plans in full

Drivers are wondering what will happen with ULEZ now that Labour is in charge of the country, especially after a lot of election campaign noise was floating around on the topic of ULEZ, the Ultra Low Emission Zones which charge high polluting vehicles entering parts of London in a bid to cut pollution.

ULEZ, first proposed as a policy in London by Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson, was then put in place by next mayor, Labour’s Sadiq Khan.

Since then, ULEZ has become a hot topic, with Conservative election campaigns claiming Labour wants to introduce a ‘national ULEZ’ or pay-per-mile road taxes.

While Labour has in the past expressed support for ULEZ, there is nothing in the costed Labour manifesto about clean air zones or ULEZ.

But last autumn, there were national reports that support for ULEZ had been scrapped officially following a by-election defeat put down to a divide over the clean air zones.

Taking that with the manifesto’s lack of promises over ULEZ, it appears that there are no more clean air zones on the horizon.

Clean air zones already exist in Sheffield, Bradford, Birmingham, Bristol and Newcastle, though these were introduced by local councils at their own discretion.

Sheffield Council says that polluting vehicle numbers dropped 37 percent in the city centre following the introduction of its clean air zone.

Labour has brought forward the end of new petrol and diesel car sales. Originally slated for 2030, it was pushed back to 2035 by Rishi Sunak, and has now been restored to its original 2030 target.

There is nothing in Labour's manifesto about a new road tax (Vehicle Excise Duty) or pay per mile, but Keir Starmer did say in the build up to the election: "All of our plans are fully funded and fully costed and none of them require tax rises over and above the ones that we’ve already announced”.