News from Siân Berry: Londoners feel forced to have a car - outer boroughs hit hardest

More than one in five (21 per cent) Londoners now report feeling forced to own a car, according to new research commissioned by Green London Assembly Member, Sian Berry. [1]



Outer Londoners are worst affected, with 24 per cent describing themselves as forced car owners, and just 14 per cent of those in inner London feeling the same pressure to own a car. Similarly, half of people (50 per cent) in inner London say they are already able to live car-free, compared with less than one in three (32 per cent) outer Londoners.

Public transport alternatives, which help to give car owners the confidence to give up their vehicles (and the associated costs of ownership) are also under threat.



Some railway lines in London are facing a proposed halving of service frequencies.[2] In addition, Transport for London is considering cuts to bus services of nearly 20 per cent in a process executives are calling ‘managed decline’ in the face of funding uncertainty.[3]



Sian Berry AM says:

Cuts to public transport services will make this awful situation of Londoners feeling forced to own a car even worse. The Government and the Mayor must step up and restore funding to national rail and bus services for across the whole city.



“Smarter, fairer road charging is now finally on the horizon, and it must be accompanied by dramatic improvements in alternatives, particularly for outer Londoners.



Forced car ownership needs to be eliminated and the money raised from an effective smart, fair road-charging scheme must be used to help Londoners with high quality new services.

The Mayor of London has recently started to talk for the first time about implementing a smarter, fairer system of road charging, a policy which Sian Berry has promoted since she was first elected to the London Assembly in 2016. Sian recently spoke with the Guardian about this issue. [4]



Last week the Mayor reported that air pollution in outer London remains a threat to health, with improvements for central areas not extending to the edges of the city. This underlines the need for action to improve green travel options in this area, at the same time as cutting incentives to drive for individual journeys. [5]



The proportion of Londoners reporting that they suffer from forced car ownership has not improved – in 2019 when the question was last asked via YouGov by the Green AMs, it was 19 per cent. [6]