London Mayor launches £23m van scrappage fund

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has opened a £23m scrappage fund to help charities and small businesses switch older, polluting vans for cleaner vehicles.


London Mayor launches £23m van scrappage fund

Charities and businesses that access the fund can receive a £6

The £23m scrappage fund was launched late last week and is applicable to London-based charities and microbusinesses – defined as those with 10 or fewer employees. Through the scheme, old vans can be scrapped for up to £6,000 to help with purchases and running costs of electric vehicles (EVs) or those compliant with the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

With polluting vehicles accounting for around 50% of the capital’s toxic air emissions, it is hoped the scrappage fund will help improve air quality, which is currently a contributing factor to 40,000 premature deaths in the UK annually.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “To get a grip on London’s lethal air and protect public health we need to rid our streets of the most polluting vehicles. With six weeks to go until the ULEZ starts in central London, many Londoners are looking at ways to change to cleaner transport options.

“Motorists need our help and support to take positive action, and I am proud to today open this £23m scrappage scheme today to help enable microbusinesses and charities to scrap polluting vans and minibuses, and switch to cleaner vehicles. The van scrappage scheme will be followed later this year with a £25m fund to help lower-income households scrap polluting cars.”

The Mayor’s final Budget, including details on the new £25m fund, will be presented to the London Assembly on 25 February.

ULEZ alert

Charities and businesses that access the fund can receive a £6,000 payment to assist with the running costs for a new EV, or a payment of £3,500 to purchase a Euro 6 vehicle or access rental and car-sharing services across London. Last week, car-sharing firm Zipcar reached 250,000 members across the UK.

Pollution costs the UK an estimated £20bn annually. In response, The Mayor has launched a wide-ranging set of initiatives to improve air quality in the capital. From 8 April, ULEZ will operate in London and 17 major businesses and organisations have already committed to replacing their van fleets with EVs by 2028.

Meanwhile, businesses on one of London’s Bond Street – one of the capital’s most polluted – have collaborated to slash the amount of CO2e and NOx emitted by freight vehicles travelling in the area by 76%.

The Government already offers grants of up to £8,000 to reduce the cost of purchasing an electric van. The Mayor’s scheme will compliment this offer by targeting microbusinesses.

Matt Mace

Comments (1)

  1. Colin Matthews says:

    I will be interested to see how the scheme ensures that the polluting vehicle is properly scrapped and does not make its way into the outer regions of the UK For use there. Given the substantial lead time for Euro 6 and EV Vans is the scheme really going to have much effect by 8 April ?

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