Voices: The real Ulez shocker: it’s nowhere near as bad as it’s being painted

Today is the first day of the Ulez expansion in outer London, the issue that “lost” Labour the Uxbridge by-election – but the extension of the ultra-low-emission zone charge area should in fact prove to be very good news for Sadiq Khan, Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. Indeed, by rights, the whole Ulez issue should now subside. Shocker: it’s not as bad as it’s painted.

The reality of the Ulez is very straightforward: today the vast majority of Londoners will realise that they won’t be affected at all. They won’t have to pay £12.50 every time they take to the road. They won’t be driven out of business. They won’t be menaced by cameras and penalty charge notices. Estimates vary, and leaving aside people who don’t drive, at least 80 per cent of drivers won’t have anything to worry about.

Among those who might, there are new scrappage schemes to subsidise a replacement vehicle. And a replacement vehicle needn’t be new or electric or expensive either. Compliant vehicles include, for example, my own very old (2006) petrol-engine Skoda car, which isn’t worth much even though quite capable of providing further service. You don’t need to buy a new £50,000 Tesla. Much the same goes for people who drive into London. I repeat – some 80 to 90 per cent of drivers won’t be penalised.

Old cars, particularly diesels, can be incredibly polluting. We’ve all experienced the sheer sooty horror of finding ourselves following some knackered old van or superannuated car belching thick black smoke out of its exhaust (even without the owner illegally removing the particulates filter).

I’d pay £12.50 not to breathe the toxic fumes. Why should people who live near Heathrow and Wembley put up with lots of smoky pollution by people travelling by car? The more insidious evil is the pollution we can’t see or smell, but nonetheless builds up on busy roads and finds its way into young lungs. That’s not right or fair.

As I say, today millions of Londoners and others will be finally checking if their vehicle is liable to the Ulez charge and getting a pleasant surprise. I note that the Transport for London website is so congested itself it’s having to run a queuing system. That suggests people are actually finding out what’s going on and discovering the truth.

It only goes to show how badly explained and sold the Ulez scheme has been by a rather complacent mayor, and how effective the Tories’ negative messaging was in the Uxbridge by-election. That should change, and Labour ought to draw the appropriate lessons.

They might also point out that the Ulez was first launched by mayor Boris Johnson, and the expansion foisted on Khan by Grant Shapps, in return for a TfL bailout. The Ulez charge was also introduced too rapidly and set too high – natural wastage wound have delivered similar results anyway, as old vehicles faded away.

But today will at least dispel some of the most pernicious Ulez myths. Labour can breathe easy (and so can the rest of us).