ULEZ scrappage scheme: Which London boroughs have received the most funding from TfL so far?

Transport for London (TfL) has unveiled which of the capital’s boroughs have received the most funding so far from its £110 million Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) scrappage scheme.

The mayor, Sadiq Khan, launched the fund in January this year to support eligible applicants to scrap or retrofit their older, more polluting vehicles ahead of the ULEZ expansion on August 29.

Those trading in their vehicle can receive either payment, including up to £2,000 for a car or £1,000 for a motorcycle, or payment plus a contribution towards another form of transport, such as one or two adult-rate annual bus and tram passes.

In June, Mr Khan announced the scheme would be expanded from the end of July to enable more people to apply, with additional grace periods for businesses, sole traders and charities.

And now, in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, TfL has published how much funding has been committed between January 30 and June 25.

How much money has TfL handed out?

Over that six-month period, the data shows TfL dished out a total of £32,837,600, from its pot of just over £100m.

The majority of that has gone towards van and minibus applications, £25,264,000, where 4,957 applicants have been approved from a total of 16,006 received.

The remaining £7,573,600 has gone to car and motorcycle owners, of which from 9,178 applications submitted, 4,016 have been approved.

The data further shows that, of the car and motorcycle applications which have been committed funding, most of the money is going to those on low-income benefits (£5,752,800), while £1,820,800 has been for those on disability benefits.

Sole traders make up about half of the van and minibus funding, with £13,308,000 of the £25,264,000 approved, while £383,000 has gone to charities, and £11,573,000 to micro businesses.

Which London boroughs have received the most ULEZ scrappage scheme money?

As of June 25, the boroughs which had received the most funding were, unsurprisingly, the outer London boroughs due to be incorporated into the ULEZ when it is expanded in August.

Of those, applicants in Hillingdon recorded the most, with a total of £2,719,900 committed.

Following the west London borough were Croydon, with £2,325,400, Bromley, with £1,998,000, and Sutton, with £1,982,500.

Havering and Ealing also recorded figures of more than £1.9m, while the lowest was, again unsurprisingly, the City of London, with just £5,000 committed.

When announcing the first iteration of the scrappage scheme at the start of the year, Mr Khan said: “I took the difficult decision to expand the ULEZ because it will save lives, help tackle the climate crisis and reduce congestion.

“We have made huge progress in central and inner London but there is much more to do in outer London.

“We need to get the most highly polluting vehicles off our roads, which are damaging the health of all Londoners, including drivers.”