The £110 million scrappage scheme for older polluting cars has been launched by the mayor of London.

The scheme is expected to appeal to residents in Richmond borough who have the highest car ownership levels in the capita London at 75% of households.

The scrappage scheme is part of the ULEZ scheme, which will be extended to the whole of London out to the M25, from August and is designed to take older, polluting cars off the streets to cut toxic pollutants and boost public health.

It will impose a daily charge of £12.50 on vehicles, which emit higher level of pollutants that are blamed for over 4,000 premature deaths a year.

Some 85% of vehicles on the roads of Richmond and outer London will not be hit by the charge as they already meet minimum vehicle emission standards.

Owners of the remaining 15% of vehicles may be eligible for a grant under the scrappage scheme to help replace their existing vehicle with a new cleaner alternative.

Richmond Council has called for a delay in launching the scheme to ensure it is improved. Specifically they want an increase in the cash support offered by the scrappage scheme and secondly improvements to buses and cycle infrastructure.

Councillors have also indicated they may look to support residents who want to move away from using older polluting cars, however the mechanism for doing this has not been announced.

Some Lib-Dem Councils in outer London boroughs have raised fundamental objections to extending the ULEZ, while Conservative Councils are trying to block it through the courts.

The London mayor said the £110m scrappage scheme is the biggest ever seen. It is being funded entirely by Council Tax payers in the capital as the government has refused to put any money into the scheme, unlike in other parts of the country, such as Birmingham, Bristol and Portsmouth.

Details include: -

• Londoners receiving certain means-tested benefits and non-means-tested disability benefits can apply for cash grants of up to £2,000 to scrap their non ULEZ-compliant cars or motorcycles.
• As a new feature, successful applicants can choose to receive a higher value package comprised of up to two free annual bus and tram passes and a lower cash grant.
• Disabled people who want to scrap or retrofit a non-compliant wheelchair accessible vehicle will be able to apply for grants of £5,000 to reflect the higher cost of these vehicles. Disabled people can also apply for a nominated driver who lives at a different address if they do not drive themselves.
• Charities, sole traders and business with 10 or fewer employees registered in London can apply to scrap a van (£5,000 grant) or a minibus (£7,000 grant), retrofit certain vans or minibuses (£5,000 grant) or scrap and replace a van or minibus with a fully electric vehicle (£7,500 or £9,500 grant respectively). 

To accompany the scrappage scheme, the Mayor and Transport for London are also announcing a host of ULEZ support offers from businesses, including additional exclusive offers for successful applicants of the scrappage scheme.

These include discounts on subscriptions, rentals and purchases of bicycles, e-bikes, cargo bikes, cars and vans from companies including Brompton, Enterprise and Santander Cycles.

In addition to the scrappage scheme, the Mayor has decided to provide extra support for disabled people, through new and extended grace periods for those who own older polluting cars. The Mayor is encouraging everyone who is eligible to apply.

The two new grace periods provide exemptions until October 2027 for recipients of certain disability benefits (or their nominated driver) and for all wheelchair accessible vehicles and some vehicles with other adaptations. The grace periods are available to all eligible people or a nominated driver regardless of whether they live in London, and they will apply to the current ULEZ zone as well.

James Colquhoun, Mortlake Plumbing and Heating said: "We're a domestic plumbing and heating business. In 2021 we scrapped three vans that weren't ULEZ compliant.

"As a business we have to manage our overheads carefully but the grant makes a ULEZ-compliant van more affordable.

"The process of scrapping the vehicle is very easy – there's a basic set of procedures to hand in the documentation and then you get the grant. It was slick. If people have non-compliant vehicles that they're using in the zone every day, this is too good an opportunity to miss."

Sadiq Khan said: "I took the difficult decision to expand the ULEZ because it will save lives, help tackle the climate crisis and reduce congestion. We have made huge progress in central and inner London but there is much more to do in outer London.

"Clean air is a fundamental human right – and everyone deserves to breathe clean air including those in outer London. Around 4,000 Londoners are dying prematurely each year due to toxic air, with the greatest number of deaths attributable to air pollution in London's outer boroughs. It is causing people to develop life-changing illnesses, such as cancer, lung disease, dementia and asthma, and leading to children growing up with stunted lungs.

"We need to get the most highly polluting vehicles off our roads, which are damaging the health of all Londoners, including drivers.

"The rising cost of living has been a key consideration for me, which is why we are launching this new and improved scrappage scheme – the biggest ever - to help low-income and disabled Londoners, businesses, sole traders and charities switch to cleaner vehicles, or support them to make the most of other transport options."