The London-wide ULEZ expansion will mean an additional five million Londoners breathing cleaner air, and reduce harmful NOx, particulate matter and carbon emissions from vehicles.
Specifically, the expansion is projected to:
- Ensure 300,000 more Londoners live in an area that meet the WHO guidelines for air quality.
- Reduce the number of cars not meeting the tough ULEZ standards each day from 160,000 to 46,000 and the number of vans not meeting the standards each day from 42,000 to 26,000.
- Lead to 146,000 fewer car trips (nearly 2 per cent reduction), with direct reductions in greenhouse gas emissions as well as other pollutants.
- Save 27,000 tonnes of CO2 in outer London in 2023 - which is nearly double what the central ULEZ saved in its first year.
- Save 362 tonnes of NOx in 2023, which is nearly 60 per cent more than the central ULEZ saved in its first year
It also means that almost all of London’s most deprived communities would experience an improvement in air quality – 99.9 per cent would live in areas that would experience improved NO2 concentrations and 97 per cent would live in areas with improved PM2.5 concentrations.
This is on top of the air quality improvements Londoners are already experiencing from the existing central and inner London ULEZ and those expected in the long term, including:
- Reducing harmful roadside NO2, with levels 46 per cent lower in central London and 21 per cent lower in inner London than they would have been without the ULEZ.
- Helping to prevent over 1 million air pollution-related hospital admissions by 2050.
- Helping to save the NHS and social care system in London £5 billion, due to the projected reduction in hospital admissions.
As we have done with central and inner London, we will keep Londoners updated with progress once the scheme is launched.