For the reason that finish of January, the car scrappage scheme has dedicated almost £18m to low-income and disabled Londoners, and small companies and charities to assist them take a number of the most polluting automobiles from London’s roads.

Whereas £13.5m has been allotted for drivers of vans and minibuses, the bulk going to assist small companies, greater than £4m has been dedicated to Londoners who personal non-compliant automobiles and bikes.

Total, 4,833 purposes have been accepted by the scheme, with £17,727,500 dedicated to this point.

Based mostly on earlier schemes, there may be normally a rise in purposes nearer to implementation. With simply over 4 months to go till the ULEZ expands, there are nonetheless tens of tens of millions of kilos left within the scrappage fund and TfL continues to advise drivers to test their car’s compliance and take advantage of the Mayor’s scrappage scheme.

Drivers have been heeding TfL’s recommendation to test their car’s compliance, with greater than 8m visits to TfL’s car checker because the Mayor confirmed that the ULEZ would develop. With most petrol automobiles beneath 16 years outdated and diesel automobiles beneath six years outdated already assembly the emission requirements, many drivers have been discovering that their automobiles are compliant with the ULEZ.

The £110m scrappage scheme was launched to help smaller companies, sole merchants, charities, Londoners on decrease incomes and disabled Londoners in changing their older, extra polluting automobiles with greener choices. The scheme helps Londoners on decrease incomes or who obtain incapacity advantages scrap automobiles and bikes, and sole merchants, micro-business or charities scrap or retrofit vans and minibuses.

Extra Londoners might be eligible for the scheme on the on the premise of their earnings than they realise. Eligibility can differ relying on private circumstances, reminiscent of whether or not they dwell alone or have kids, however regardless, eligibility is extra seemingly for these renting their houses.

Evaluation exhibits that many individuals might be eligible for scrappage who don’t realise it and TfL urges everybody to test the TfL web site to see if they will entry the scheme.

The London-wide ULEZ is important to deal with the triple challenges of air air pollution, the local weather emergency and congestion. The newest TfL knowledge exhibits that 90 per cent of automobiles seen driving in outer London on a median day already meet the requirements. That is anticipated to be even increased when the scheme goes dwell later this 12 months.

Deputy Mayor for Surroundings & Power, Shirley Rodrigues, mentioned: “Round 4,000 Londoners die yearly because of our poor high quality air, and it contributes to a variety of significant well being circumstances from bronchial asthma, to most cancers, to dementia.

“Whereas 9 in 10 automobiles seen driving each day in outer London are already ULEZ-compliant, I’m happy that hundreds of homeowners of non-compliant automobiles have already utilized to our scrappage scheme.

“My message to Londoners immediately is that there’s loads of funding nonetheless out there and it’s possible you’ll be entitled to the scrappage scheme and never realise it. So I urge folks to go surfing immediately and see in the event that they is also eligible for hundreds of kilos to scrap their polluting car.”

Christina Calderato, TfL’s Director of Technique and Coverage mentioned: “It’s nice to see that scrappage grants are already taking part in a major position in supporting smaller companies, these on low incomes, disabled folks and charities to prepare for the growth.

“Whereas the overwhelming majority of automobiles driving in outer London on a median day are compliant, I urge drivers to make use of our car checker and if they’ve a non-compliant car, test their eligibility for the scrappage scheme to assist them make the change to greener and cleaner journey.”

Alex Achilleos, Managing Director of Inside Out Eventz Ltd primarily based within the London Borough of Enfield, mentioned: “We offer catering companies for weddings, features and company occasions. Our vans are a significant device in serving to us supply elements and provides together with transporting our meals and tools on time for a seamless occasion. The scrappage scheme has enabled us to take certainly one of our older, polluting vans off the highway and purchase one which meets the ULEZ requirements. As a household enterprise we’re happy to have the ability to contribute to the motion that’s being taken to wash up the capital’s poisonous air and defend the well being of future generations.”

Tuan Pham, Director of the Samuel Montagu Youth Centre primarily based within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, mentioned: “We offer very important companies to younger folks in Kidbrooke and round London. Our centre helps individuals who may be liable to being excluded from college or lack alternatives to realize their full potential. We give younger folks confidence by a variety of sporting programmes, together with boxing classes. We use a minibus to move those that use our centre to varied sporting fixtures and occasions. The scrappage scheme has allowed us to take our car off the highway and supply us with cash in direction of one which meet the requirements. Our work focuses on organising folks for the longer term, so we’re happy to have the ability to make this contribution to bettering setting.”

The £110m scrappage scheme builds on the earlier £61m scrappage scheme that helped to take away greater than 15,200 older, extra polluting automobiles from London’s roads. The analysis survey of the Automotive and Bike Scrappage Scheme confirmed it was efficient in lowering car possession, with a 3rd of respondents not buying a substitute car. The earlier scrappage scheme additionally helped to extend public transport use, with survey respondents reporting a lower in automotive journey and a rise in strolling, biking and public transport use.

Whereas there are lots of compliant vans available on the market, homeowners of non-compliant vans and wheelchair accessible automobiles don’t want to purchase a brand new van and could also be eligible for a £5,000 grant to retrofit their car and make it’s compliant with the requirements. This may be sure that extra sole merchants, smaller enterprise, charities and disabled Londoners can use much less polluting automobiles and fewer vans should be scrapped. All automobiles which might be scrapped by the scheme are required have a goal of a minimum of 95 per cent recycling and restoration, and usually tend to be in direction of the tip of their working life as newer automobiles would have extra resale worth.

Along with offering a grant for scrapping or retrofitting a polluting car, people can select to obtain as much as two annual bus and tram passes along with a decrease grant for the next worth package deal. The scheme additionally gives entry to a variety of unique gives and gives for Londoners not eligible for the scheme. TfL has secured a variety of nice offers that may assist get monetary savings and use greener, cleaner types of transport. Cash may be saved on issues like rent and subscription companies for bikes, e-bikes, cargo bikes and e-scooters and reductions on automotive golf equipment.