Ulez Fine Issued Every 15 Seconds in London
A Ulez fine is issued in London every 15 seconds on average, data show. A total of 2.4 million penalties have been issued since the expansion of Sir Sadiq Khan’s flagship policy, which grew the Ulez zone to cover the whole of Greater London inside the M25 from August 2023.
Of those fines, 1.1 million went unpaid to the point that bailiffs were instructed to pursue them as unpaid debts, research by car-sharing website Turo found.
Ulez’s stated aim is to improve London’s air quality by taxing older, more polluting cars more heavily than newer vehicles with greener engines.
Turo’s research found that by Nov 1 last year, just one in five Ulez fines had been paid within 28 days. The penalty for not paying the £12.50 daily driving tax is £90, doubling to £180 if not paid within 14 days.
One vehicle alone racked up more than £240,000 in Ulez penalties, amounting to more than a thousand penalty charge notices (PCNs).
Critics see Ulez as part of a wider war on motorists, increasing taxes on people who choose to drive instead of paying TfL for public transport services.
Keith Prince, a Conservative member of the London Assembly, described the penalties as a “disgrace” and said Sir Sadiq had been warned before the scheme’s expansion that it risked penalising those least able to afford it.
“By the time you finish reading this quote, TfL will have issued another fine to a Londoner struggling to afford to upgrade their car, who is four times more likely to not be able to pay it on time,” he said. We warned [Sir Sadiq] this would happen, and yet he will not listen to sense or reason. These fines are in no uncertain terms a disgrace and one which I condemn as another brick in the wall for Labour’s war on working people.”
Rory Brimmer, a director of Turo, warned Ulez risked being seen as unaffordable.
“Ulez has been crucial for London’s journey to remove dangerous pollution from our air, helping all of us who call the city home enjoy healthier lives, but these figures show that for some the expense of a newer car has been insurmountable,” he said. “While a small number may be deliberately evading the charges, others are caught between having to drive for work or family commitments and being unable to afford a newer vehicle.”
The policy is one of the least popular that Sir Sadiq has introduced in his eight years as mayor.
Some vandals who styled themselves “blade runners” used power tools to cut down newly installed Ulez enforcement cameras when the zone was expanded. Arrests and criminal convictions resulted, including that of Joseph Nicholls, 43, a father of three, who last September cried in the dock as he was given a suspended prison sentence for sending menacing messages to companies supplying Ulez camera equipment. He was also ordered to pay almost £7,000 in legal costs and compensation.
Ulez enforcement has been a cause of distress not only for Londoners but those who travel into the capital for business and leisure.
Earlier this year, a 52-year-old private tutor who drove to London for a backgammon tournament found herself being pursued by bailiffs for £945.
Rebecca Bell even had a wheel clamp put on her car after what TfL described as a “processing error” with her Ulez payment, which had been correctly made in advance.
A spokesman for TfL said: “The Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) expanded London-wide to tackle the triple challenges of air pollution, the climate emergency and traffic congestion, bringing cleaner air to five million more Londoners.
“Any income generated from the Ulez is being reinvested back into the public transport network, including improving bus routes in outer London. The most recent data shows that on average, more than 96 per cent of vehicles seen driving in the Ulez are compliant.”
“We are stepping up enforcement of those who evade Ulez penalty charge notices (PCNs), by tripling the number of people in our investigations team to boost the work with enforcement agents to target those in polluting vehicles that refuse to pay the daily charges. We encourage anyone who has received a PCN to engage with the notice.”
A spokesman for the mayor’s office declined to comment.