To think this is ridiculous and will mostly affect the poor of London?

[mothertruck3r]

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/new-emissions-zone-to-hit-drivers-with-1250-a-day-pollution-tax-a3858531.html

I understand he wants to reduce pollution but how is this going to help the hundreds of thousands of poor people who can't afford to buy a new car, pay the fee (£12.50 per day!) or pay the fine, especially after people were encouraged to buy diesel cars?

Great if you are rich and can easily buy a new car but there are loads of poor people in London who can't do this and rely on their old car for their jobs, taking kids to school, disabled getting about etc.

It's not very well thought through. I thought Labour was supposed to be the party to help the poor. Seems all this will do is help boost new car sales for big manufacturers whilst screwing a huge part of the electorate that voted for him !

Central London is congested. I think if they banned all the pointless amazon deliveries (or overcharged for that instead) and Uber then some of the congestion would improve.
They have narrowed a lot of roads which hasn’t helped.

Well supppsedly the plant has 12 years to turn this around....

I totally agree with the charges, the only people I feel sorry for are those who bought newish diesels in good faith.

You're free to move to London and contribute to the economy that earns this "over investment" and then some more.

I'm already contributing to the economy despite not living in London and not enjoying the lavish public spending on transport - perhaps I deserve a refund on the taxes I'm paying.

whilst the poor are funnelled onto already over crowded and ever rising over priced public transport

At least you have excellent public transport options in London

Newish diesels won’t be affected but they are expensive. Feel sorry for those unable to buy any car that won’t be charged oh and those in the rest of the country who are stuck with archaic public transport which simply couldn’t sustain such s measure thus ensuring children outside of London are stuck with their congestion fumes.

Public transport in London is overcrowded, dirty, and pretty crap. And very expensive.

I’m confused by the posts saying Londoners don’t need to drive and there are no poor people in London. The north and south circulars are mainly suburban roads, not central London. They are extremely heavily used and there isn’t an obvious public transport alternative in many of the areas it serves. I used to take the north circ daily from Brent Cross to Hanger Lane. It a working persons route, I’ll tell you that. Covers some of the poorest parts of the north west city, used heavily by vans and people going to industrial estates which heavily populate the route

That said I’m conflicted- the pollution is also terrible round there and it covering very poor parts of London leads to a double whammy for the residents of poverty and pollution. I can’t really disagree with it

Don’t need to drive?

So do I strap granny to the back of my bike and take her shopping? Or lug ten bags of groceries on the buses packed with tourists - because we only have tidgy, overpriced mini supermarkets around here.

What about the staff who work in the hospitals and hotels around here (and the all night fast food places)? I wouldn’t have getting on the night bus after a 12 hour shift with all the drunks. No thanks.

Public transport in London is overcrowded, dirty, and pretty crap. And very expensive.

You're still lucky to have it however bad you may feel it is. Plenty of places (far too many) with basically non existent public transport, especially evenings and weekends.

www.economist.com/britain/2017/07/29/does-london-get-a-better-deal-than-the-regions

www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/01/transport-spending-gap-london-north-of-england-ippr

It’s a chicken and egg situation and not just the North, it’s everywhere and a national disgrace.

“London benefits London,not the rest of the country.”

Actually London is the only city that makes a net contributions to the rest of the country.

It’s swings and roundabouts: yes, good public transport, which there has to be to get the huge workforce of 8 million to their jobs in tne congested centre (where in general that contribution to the country as a whole is made), but there are also sky high house prices and rents. Which, don’t forget, generate yet more income for the government in the form of Stamp Duty and landlords taxes.

And plenty of poor people live in London. Some of the poorest wards in the country are in London.

According to the RAC, the poorest 30% of the population have no access to private motorised transport. OP ignores this....

Car ownership is not a right, its a privelidge. Lifestyle choices allow many to do this to the detriment of themselves and the wider population.

It will help the poor of Central London, most of whom don’t have cars.

The thing is, we’re not just talking about the 30% poorest. £12.50 A day for a person using the north circ for work 5 days a week is £200 a month. That’s not just the poorest- in fact the poorest wouldn’t have a hope
In hell would they- but normal working people who aren’t on high wages.

No the over investment in London sucks it from elsewhere so there is less investment, thus less income thus less investment and round it goes again.

Education, transport..... it’s so unfair and needs to stop.

If you want to live in London you have to be prepared to pay a lot more, its a very expensive place.

Plenty of other cities in the UK where it is cheaper to live, literally everywhere else.

I wish it applied to the whole of the UK. With a scrappage scheme.

So do I strap granny to the back of my bike and take her shopping? Or lug ten bags of groceries on the buses packed with tourists - because we only have tidgy, overpriced mini supermarkets around here. You can order online and the supermarket will deliver nowadays. It's marvellous.

Totally agree about taxing Uber.

Seems to be loads of transit vans on roads

No way - I have done this and it’s not been satisfactory. Plus they don’t come and clean the car too.

Not all shops deliver anyway and if you need to do the rounds of specialist shops too it’s a bloody faff. And pick up the dry cleaning.

I'm no fan of Uber as a company but taxis are much more environmentally friendly than private cars.

And before you say ‘clean the car yourself’ we live on the 7th floor and park on the street.

Praise the Lord! My elderly car meets the standards. (I live about 1/2 a mile from the North Circ outside of the 2021 extended ULEZ). I do deliberately drive North if I'm going to do bulk shopping, but this has cheered me up no end.

I think that London is over-crowded, dirty and expensive, and that the new legislation will mostly affect small, independent business who are only just hanging on to a tiny profit margin as it is. The rich wil get richer, the poor will get poorer, and the big chains will be able to absorb the extra costs.

Wages are lower elsewhere,amenities spread out and poorer alongside more expensive.

Nothing justifies the over investment in London at the cost of everywhere else. The rest of the country needs to wake up.