Because the finish of January, the automobile scrappage scheme has dedicated practically £18m to low-income and disabled Londoners, and small companies and charities to assist them take among 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 vehicles and bikes.

General, 4,833 purposes have been authorised by means of the scheme, with £17,727,500 dedicated thus far.

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

Drivers have been heeding TfL’s recommendation to test their automobile’s compliance, with greater than 8m visits to TfL’s automobile checker for the reason that Mayor confirmed that the ULEZ would broaden. With most petrol automobiles beneath 16 years outdated and diesel automobiles beneath six years outdated already assembly the emission requirements, many drivers have been discovering that their automobiles are compliant with the ULEZ.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 assist 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 vehicles 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 revenue than they realise. Eligibility can differ relying on private circumstances, similar to whether or not they dwell alone or have youngsters, however regardless, eligibility is extra seemingly for these renting their properties.

Evaluation reveals 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’ll entry the scheme.

The London-wide ULEZ is important to sort out the triple challenges of air air pollution, the local weather emergency and congestion. The newest TfL information reveals that 90 per cent of vehicles seen driving in outer London on a mean day already meet the requirements. That is anticipated to be even greater when the scheme goes dwell later this yr.

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

“Whereas 9 in 10 vehicles 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 right this moment is that there’s loads of funding nonetheless out there and you could be entitled to the scrappage scheme and never realise it. So I urge individuals to go surfing right this moment and see in the event that they may be eligible for hundreds of kilos to scrap their polluting automobile.”

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

“Whereas the overwhelming majority of vehicles driving in outer London on a mean day are compliant, I urge drivers to make use of our automobile checker and if they’ve a non-compliant automobile, 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 providers for weddings, features and company occasions. Our vans are an important instrument in serving to us supply components and provides together with transporting our meals and tools on time for a seamless occasion. The scrappage scheme has enabled us to take considered 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 providers to younger individuals in Kidbrooke and round London. Our centre helps individuals who could be susceptible to being excluded from faculty or lack alternatives to attain their full potential. We give younger individuals confidence by means of a variety of sporting programmes, together with boxing classes. We use a minibus to move those that use our centre to numerous sporting fixtures and occasions. The scrappage scheme has allowed us to take our automobile off the highway and supply us with cash in direction of one which meet the requirements. Our work focuses on organising individuals for the long run, so we’re happy to have the ability to make this contribution to enhancing surroundings.”

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 Automobile and Bike Scrappage Scheme confirmed it was efficient in decreasing automobile possession, with a 3rd of respondents not buying a alternative automobile. The earlier scrappage scheme additionally helped to extend public transport use, with survey respondents reporting a lower in automobile journey and a rise in strolling, biking and public transport use.

Whereas there are various compliant vans in the marketplace, 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 automobile and make it’s compliant with the requirements. This may be certain 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 can be scrapped by means of the scheme are required have a goal of at the very least 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 automobile, people can select to obtain as much as two annual bus and tram passes along with a decrease grant for a better worth bundle. The scheme additionally gives entry to a spread of unique provides and provides for Londoners not eligible for the scheme. TfL has secured a spread of nice offers that may assist lower your expenses and use greener, cleaner types of transport. Cash might be saved on issues like rent and subscription providers for bikes, e-bikes, cargo bikes and e-scooters and reductions on automobile golf equipment.