Manchester scraps clean air charging zone plan

Greater Manchester has scrapped longstanding and contentious plans for a clean air charging zone. 

Its mayor, Andy Burnham, said new data showed the English city region could now meet legal clean air targets more quickly by investing in public transport instead.

“The way to do this was not to push people into hardship, to threaten people’s businesses and livelihoods,” he said. “The path to net zero has to be to take people with it rather than seeking to punish people.”

Charging drivers of polluting vehicles has become an increasingly contentious political issue in recent months. London mayor Sadiq Khan’s decision to extend the capital’s clean air charging zone was widely blamed for Labour’s loss of the Uxbridge by-election in July, bringing the issue to national attention.

Burnham’s alternative plan, which will be submitted to central government for approval, would be fairer than previous proposals to charge the drivers of more polluting vans, taxis and lorries, he added.

Like other areas with illegally high levels of nitrogen dioxide, a harmful toxin found in vehicle emissions, parts of Greater Manchester had been mandated by ministers to achieve legal levels of the pollutant by the end of 2024. 

The city region’s resulting plan would have charged drivers of the most polluting commercial vehicles up to £60 a day to drive within its boundaries.

The scheme, similar to that introduced in a number of other English cities, was originally due to be implemented in May last year and included a £120mn central government scrappage fund for affected motorists. 

However, in early 2022 a public backlash from small business owners in particular prompted local leaders to rethink the move and request a delay. Ministers eventually agreed to push the area’s clean air target back until the end of 2026. 

Burnham said more time had been needed to see the impact of taking the city region’s buses — some of the most polluting vehicles on the road — back into public control, which only began in September.

Since then bus passenger numbers have risen by 8 per cent, he said, while further investment was being made into electric buses.

Burnham added that new modelling showed that if Greater Manchester’s scrappage fund was redeployed into further transport investment — including 65 new electric buses and £30mn for taxi upgrades — the area could achieve legal air quality standards in 2025, a year ahead of the government’s 2026 deadline.

The proposal will still need to be approved by ministers. 

Other major English cities, including London, Birmingham, Newcastle, Bradford and Bristol, have all introduced charging zones as part of an effort to tackle illegally dirty air.

Burnham insisted he was not avoiding politically difficult decisions by jettisoning the charging zone. He said the decision to take Greater Manchester’s buses back into public control — which resulted in a legal challenge from the bus sector — had itself been “seismic” and was now fundamental to the new clean air plan.