The War On Diesel Is Getting Serious With £20 Daily Penalties For Driving Into Cities

Diesel's days are definitely numbered, with the environmental secretary and London Mayor both about to announce new punitive measures against diesel cars

Matt Kimberley

04 Apr 2017

The War On Diesel Is Getting Serious With £20 Daily Penalties For Driving Into Cities

Drivers of diesel cars could be slapped with daily ‘toxin taxes’ in dozens of UK cities if leaked Government plans go ahead.

The Times writes that as many as 35 of the British towns and cities worst affected by pollution will be able to introduce charges of up to £20 per day, with the ‘nine or 10’ worst areas able to completely ban diesel vehicles at certain times of day.

The newspaper estimates that the number of affected cars alone could run to 10 million, and that’s before considering vans, lorries and buses.

Diesel Jaguar X-Types would be among those cars hit by the new rules

Apparently, the plans could exclude diesel cars in some cities and focus mainly on commercial vehicles, but more detail will be revealed when the Environment Secretary, Andrea Leadsom, makes the announcement next week.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan is this week going to announce an unprecedented widening of the London congestion charge net. It would apply a £12.50 charge to ‘the most polluting vehicles’ everywhere inside the North Circular and South Circular roads, on top of the additional £10 ‘T-Charge’ that will be charged to drivers of pre-2006 diesels that enter central London at peak times.

That means that, say, a 2004 Ford Focus diesel would cost at least £20 a day to drive into central London, or potentially at least £32.50 a day if the mayor decides to include older diesel cars in the wider anti-pollution initiative. That would be pretty crippling, and drivers would be forced to take a huge hit on the resale value of their cars in order to swap to something newer or not diesel-powered.

Basically, if you drive an old, polluting diesel and don’t have the money to replace it, be somewhere other than London.

The bad news for diesel drivers continues, with extra taxes on new diesel cars set to be announced in the Autumn budget. Don’t rule out diesel fuel duty increases, either.

Via: The Times (basic subscription required)

Comments

so vin diesel should pay 20pounds per day when he is on london ?

As long as diesel is cheaper then petrol here in the Netherlands, it probably wont be

ByeBye Volkswagens

I support this.
If it was me, I would only allow electric and low-polluting commercial and public transport to travel for free in cities. Anything else should pay a three-digit daily tax. This money could be spent on improving public transport links. This would help congestion and thus reduce public transport delays and commercial deliviries delays (potentially even leading to a slight reduction in prices). Not to mention cleaner air.
Cars must be used on twisty back roads or for travelling between cities on motorways. Not wasting fuel sitting in traffic - that’s not what we love cars for.

Thank god i dont live i the UK. E90 corolla 1.8 diesel with 67 horses and plenty of smoke

This is just a tax on those who cant afford to change to a newer car. No surprise tho… its the UK Gov.

Foreign Aid money and The Coffers dont fill themselves.

If they care about “pollution” then they should scrap the ridiculous new car tax system on low emmison cars, offering tax reductions on PHEVS and EVS and nationalising the EV charging network to stop private companies ripping off drivers at charge points.