Why ULEZ Car Pollution Charge Has Londoners Divided

A levy on drivers of older cars with dirtier engines has pushed many of them off London’s roads, reducing pollution that’s been blamed for thousands of deaths in the capital each year. Yet some Londoners still resent the £12.50 ($15.80) daily charge for entering the Ultra Low Emission Zone. When city officials expanded it to London’s outskirts last August, resistance coalesced online, and some of the cameras that monitor ULEZ compliance were vandalized. The hostile reaction showed the risk of trying to tackle environmental problems during a cost-of-living crisis. Now the Conservative candidate to replace Labour mayor Sadiq Khan is vowing to roll back the ULEZ expansion if she wins office.

The ULEZ is an area of London that drivers of high-polluting vehicles have to pay a charge to drive in. The idea — designed to reduce air pollution as well as congestion — was initially proposed by a Conservative, Boris Johnson, in 2015 when he served as mayor. It was implemented by Khan in 2019 in inner London, expanded to border the capital’s North Circular and South Circular roads in 2021, then enlarged again in August 2023 to cover all of greater London.