deltic
Established Member
- Joined
- 8 Feb 2010
- Messages
- 3,233
ULEZ was introduced in 2019 covering the same area as London's congestion charge scheme to general widespread support. Indeed a number of London Boroughs lobbied for it to be extended to cover their areas. Proposed under Johnson and implemented by Khan it effectively had cross party support. Extended in 2021 to an area bounded by the North and South circulars by Khan. While it was Khan's proposal it was supported and indeed a condition for continuing emergency funding from central Government. There has been some opposition to its expansion, but it has generally been muted with people seeking exemptions for charities for example rather than it being removed. Khan is now proposing to extend ULEZ to cover virtually the whole of outer London in August this year. A legal challenge has been made and a judgement is expected by the end of this month. Regardless of the judgement it seems unlikely that that original timeline will be met.
There has been some very noisy opposition to the expansion, car ownership, while still lower than the UK average, is higher in outer London. The fact that the Conservatives managed to hold their seat in Uxbridge despite massive swings against them in Selby and Somerset suggests that ULEZ played no small part in their success. This raises the question as to what impact ULEZ will play in the London Mayoral election. While Khan is way ahead in the opinion polls, he was too in the 2021 election but the actual result was far closer than anyone anticipated.
The number of households impacted by the expansion of ULEZ is probably only around 15% in outer London, small but enough to swing an election? Perhaps surprisingly given the opposition to ULEZ Khan is also still talking about introducing a London wide road user charging scheme which is likely to be opposed by even more people.
Is the Uxbridge by-election result an indication that London's mayoral election will be far tighter than presently anticipated?
There has been some very noisy opposition to the expansion, car ownership, while still lower than the UK average, is higher in outer London. The fact that the Conservatives managed to hold their seat in Uxbridge despite massive swings against them in Selby and Somerset suggests that ULEZ played no small part in their success. This raises the question as to what impact ULEZ will play in the London Mayoral election. While Khan is way ahead in the opinion polls, he was too in the 2021 election but the actual result was far closer than anyone anticipated.
The number of households impacted by the expansion of ULEZ is probably only around 15% in outer London, small but enough to swing an election? Perhaps surprisingly given the opposition to ULEZ Khan is also still talking about introducing a London wide road user charging scheme which is likely to be opposed by even more people.
Is the Uxbridge by-election result an indication that London's mayoral election will be far tighter than presently anticipated?