Sadiq Khan wants to charge ALL car users in London - but says tech not ready yet
The Mayor of London is continuing his war against drivers in the capital
James Manning
The Mayor of London asked Transport for London (TfL) to look into using Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) cameras to charge drivers under a "pay-as-you-drive" scheme - but cars users have been spared as the technology is not ready yet.
Sadiq Khan has faced continued criticism over his expansion of Ulez, which will reach as far as Outer London from August, with five councils mounting legal challenges.
The expansion will see 200,000 more Londoners forced to pay £12.50 a day, as the Mayor tries to battle pollution created in the capital.
In February, Khan urged Rishi Sunak to fund a scrappage scheme for the home counties, asking the Prime Minister to match the £110million the Mayor has allocated to the scheme.
More of the green ULEZ zone signs will start appearing across London
Yui Mok
Khan has now confirmed TfL is looking to develop a new scheme with “sophisticated technology” that could be used to charge road users.
Speaking at the London Assembly, Khan said: “ANPR cameras could form part of the potential operation of such a scheme but no proposals have been developed.”
The Ulez expansion will see around 2,750 new cameras installed.
These measures have been seen as an early indicator that Khan wants to implement road user charges, according to Tory members of the London Assembly.
The Mayor has been trying to improve the air quality in London
Aaron Chown
The London Mayor has made no secret in saying he is a fan of Singapore-style toll roads, having previously suggested he wanted to introduce a network as part of his efforts to tackle the city’s poor air quality.
He said the “nearest comparator” for his plan was Singapore, which monitors drivers’ journeys, capturing their number plates.
The sensors then monitor what time drivers are travelling and charges them a toll.
However, it is unlikely this will be introduced into London as “the technology is not there.”
Cameras introduced as part of the Ulez expansion could be used to monitor the distances drivers travel, where they are travelling and the level of emissions their vehicles emit - with fears drivers may be charged by the mile.
Sadiq Khan called some protestors of the ULEZ expansion "far right"
James Manning
Khan has faced a large vocal rejection of his expansion plans, with former London Mayor Boris Johnson urging people to stop Khan’s “mad expansion plan”, which he labelled a “lefty tax on people’s lives and livelihoods”.
In response, Khan said: “We’ll take no lectures from a former prime minister, the former mayor, who ignored the science and ignored the facts.”
There have also been a number of protests against the proposals, but the Mayor shut those down for being “far right”.
Those comments drew even further criticism, with leader of the City Hall Conservatives, Susan Hall, describing it as a “new low” for Khan.
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “TfL has outlined how one future option could be to abolish existing charges and replace them with a single simpler road user charging scheme which could take into account factors such as local public transport availability, employment and income, but the technology required is still many years away.
“Any formal proposals which could be developed in the future would be subject to consultation with information provided on detailed scheme proposals and their likely impacts.”