Drivers will be hit with £100million of charges EVERY DAY if Ulez levies are rolled out nationally
DRIVERS will be hit with £100million of charges every day if Ulez levies are rolled out nationally, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
The bombshell revelation sparked a furious backlash from MPs and campaigners.
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Tory big beast Dame Priti Patel said Brits are not “cash cows ready to be milked”, while the Taxpayers Alliance said it is “time to slam the brakes” on the anti-car charge.
Labour’s London Mayor Sadiq Khan is planning to extend the Ulez scheme across the capital — meaning owners of older petrol and diesel cars will have to pay £12.50 every day to drive in London.
Similar anti-car ‘clean air zones’ are being planned for eight other cities, including Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester.
Nearly eight million motorists in England still drive petrol and diesel cars.
If they all had to pay the daily charge they would cough up a colossal £98,111,625
TaxPayers’ Alliance boss John O’Connell said: “These costly levies make cash cows of low-paid drivers who can’t afford to upgrade their vehicles.
“It’s time to slam the brakes on Ulez.”
The effect these eco measures are having on hard-pressed motorists is causing a row in Westminster.
The Tories enjoyed a shock by-election win in Boris Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge in west London by turning the contest into a referendum on Ulez.
Since then, Rishi Sunak declared himself “on the side” of drivers, ordering a review of low traffic neighbourhoods — schemes which stop cars going down some roads.
But he is under massive pressure to go further.
The Sun has launched the Give Us A Brake plan — a five-point manifesto demanding an end to the war on motorists, including a reversal of the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars.
Dame Priti said: “The revelation in today’s Sun on Sunday that a nationwide Ulez-style scheme could rake in £100million per day is shocking and must mark a turning point where we say enough is enough.
“The green agenda has been hijacked by people like Sadiq Khan who want to pursue a dangerous left wing and socialist agenda.
“The British people are not cash cows ready to be milked and have their freedoms sacrificed at the altar of a twisted green outlook.”
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay, chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny group, said Ulez and its sister schemes are just a “tax raising income stream” for city mayors.
He called on Transport Secretary Mark Harper to overturn “the cruel new tax”.
But Mr Khan has refused to drop the Ulez plan.
He extended eligibility for a £2,000 scrappage scheme to all Londoners to help them meet the costs of changing their car.
But no one outside the capital can get the cash, even though they are still stung by the levy.
Mr Khan said: “Expanding the Ulez to the whole of London was a difficult decision — but I remain committed to seeing it through.”
Plans to charge by mile
MOTORISTS could be hit by pay-per-mile charges within seven years.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said in his book Breathe, published in May, that there were “plans to introduce a new, more comprehensive road-user charging system by the end of the decade”.
When asked about the idea in April Mr Khan told the FT: “If you charge people on how many miles they drive, how polluting their vehicle is, what time of day they’re driving, alternatives related to public transport, how many people are in the car, that’s potentially quite exciting.”
A spokesman for Mr Khan said recently there was no prospect of pay-per-mile charges “in the foreseeable future”.
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/23365198/motorists-charges-ulez-nationally/
