Government approves Clean Air Zone and £52m support package

Birmingham's plans for a Clean Air Zone have been approved by the government, along with more than £50 million to put the scheme in place and help people and businesses affected by it.

Environment minister Dr Therese Coffey has written to the city council to confirm that its plans for a charging Clean Air Zone, and a package of additional measures, have been approved.

The funding

The government has allocated £14.2 million from its Implementation Fund for signs, cameras and other infrastructure, and £38 million from its Clean Air Fund to support businesses and individuals likely to be affected.

Of that £38 million, around £10.8 million will provide mobility support for people who work in the zone, at least half of it for a scrappage scheme. There is £5 million for a Hackney carriage support package, £2.75 million for a council-run Hackney carriage leasing scheme, £7 million to help private hire drivers upgrade their vehicles, and about £10 million for a fund to help lorry and coach operators comply.

How the zone will work

The zone will cover all roads inside the A4540 Middleway ring road. Under the council's proposals, vehicles that do not meet national emissions standards will be charged to enter it. The proposed daily charges set out in the council's business case are £8 for cars, taxis and vans, and £50 for lorries, coaches and buses.

Exemptions

A range of temporary exemptions will give eligible people and businesses more time to switch to cleaner vehicles. Residents living inside the zone will be exempt for two years for private vehicles registered to their address. People travelling into the zone for work who earn less than £30,000 a year will be exempt for one year, as will visitors to key hospitals, GP surgeries and care homes in the zone, and some commercial vehicles registered locally.

Vehicles in the disabled tax class will be exempt for as long as the zone exists, and there will be no charge for motorcycles, mopeds or scooters.

"The start of our fight back"

Councillor Waseem Zaffar, cabinet member for transport and environment, said: "We clearly have a major public health crisis in our city, with people being exposed to illegal and unsafe levels of air pollution. The introduction of a Clean Air Zone is the start of our fight back."

He said he was pleased that nearly £15 million would be available to help taxi drivers, both Hackney carriage and private hire, upgrade to cleaner vehicles. "We feel that we will have sufficient resources to get the balance right between introducing a very much needed Clean Air Zone and supporting the communities and businesses potentially affected," he said.

But the council received less for a scrappage scheme than it had asked for, and Cllr Zaffar said it would continue to lobby the government, alongside other councils, for a national diesel scrappage scheme.

Why it is needed

The council was required by the government to bring air pollution down to legal limits in the shortest possible time. Poor air quality has been estimated to contribute to up to 900 premature deaths a year in Birmingham, with diesel vehicles a major source of the nitrogen dioxide that causes most concern.

The zone is expected to come into force in 2020.