MP Theresa Villiers will introduce a Ten-Minute rule Bill to Parliament tomorrow giving the Transport Secretary powers to overturn the London Mayor’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) expansion.
The Bill will look to amend the Greater London Authority Act 1999, so Mark Harper can review and overturn decisions made by the Mayor relating to transport and to air quality.
This would include Sadiq Khan’s decision to expand ULEZ to all London boroughs this August, a move that has sparked widespread opposition.
Other areas the Bill would allow the Transport Secretary to look act include controversial “Low Traffic Neighbourhoods” (LTNs) and 20 mile an hour limits on wide main roads, described by Ms Villiers as ‘anti-car policies’.
The former Environment Secretary will say in her Bill speech: “In my 18 years as MP for Chipping Barnet, almost nothing has provoked such strong opposition as the Mayor of London’s plan to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone.
“It comes up on almost every doorstep and at almost every meeting. People stop me in the street to tell me how strongly they feel about this.
“That is why I am bringing forward a Bill to give the Government power to overrule Mayor Khan and stop ULEZ expansion.
“Of course, we need to continue to improve air quality in London but this is the wrong scheme at the wrong time.”
Ms Villiers said it was completely unacceptable for a £12.50 a day charge to be levied on residents in outer London already grappling with the worst cost of living pressures for many years.
“The ULEZ has been tolerated in inner London because it has one of the most extensive public transport systems in the world. That is just not the case in the suburbs,” she explained.
“The reality is that ULEZ expansion to the Greater London boundary leaves my constituents facing the cost of buying a new vehicle which many cannot afford, or paying an annual bill of as much as £4500 per year just to get around their own neighbourhood.”
She added the Mayor’s own integrated impact assessment concluded that the plan is likely to have only a minor or negligible beneficial impact on tackling air pollution.
ULEZ would also hit public services in outer London, especially the care sector, as employers will find it even harder to hire the staff they need because so many live outside London and drive in, the MP will say.
These people, she added, have no vote on the mayoral elections and so they are subject to taxation without representation.
The MP added the Mayor’s focus “should be on improving public transport services not piling on costly charges or arbitrarily removing chunks of the capacity of our road network”.
“Without cars, vans, lorries, and taxis our transport system would grind to a halt, and our economy and our society would be paralysed. Cars give us so much freedom to live our lives in the way we want to. They keep us connected to friends and family. It is time for a reset. It’s time to scrap anti-car ideology.”
DVLA data indicates there are over 690,000 non-compliant cars registered in London. This rises to over 850,000, counting all vehicle types.
A Ten-Minute Rule Bill is often put forward by backbench MPs to highlight a concern or issue. They rarely become law but they can be used to highlight important issues of concern to the general public.
