Van scrappage fund set to double after only £2.3m spent

Sadiq Khan doubled the van scrappage fund
PA
Ross Lydall @RossLydall22 January 2020

Sadiq Khan has doubled the size of an incentive for small businesses to scrap polluting vans after only 10 per cent of a £23 million “green” fund was spent in its first year.

The Mayor announced that the reward for scrapping a van that frequently enters central London but which breaches the ultra low emission zone’s pollution rules would double to £7,000.

The amount available for firms who want to switch to an electric vehicle will also increase from £6,000 to £9,500.

The scheme, previously restricted to “micro businesses” with up to 10 employees, will also be widened to include firms with up to 50 employees.

It was launched in February last year, ahead of the start of the Ulez last April, but only £2.3 million has been spent.

Small businesses had complained the original scrappage payment was too low to make economic sense. A total of 2,672 applications have been received to date, with 642 vehicles scrapped.

There has been a similarly weak take-up of £2 million available to low-income and disabled Londoners to scrap older cars and motorbikes.

As of January 7, a total of 1,514 applications have been received, £947,000 in scrappage payments has been made and 476 vehicles have been scrapped.

The scheme will be further extended later this year to include HGVs and coaches, when about £15,000 per vehicle will be available.

TfL says that black taxis, which are exempt from the Ulez, are now the largest single source of transport-related nitrogen oxide gases, as a result of Londoners switching to cleaner cars and TfL cleaning up the bus fleet.

Three in four taxis in central London would fail to meet the Ulez targets on diesel vehicles, TfL said.

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