Hundreds of millions in Ulez fines are going unpaid as drivers “revolt” over the controversial charge, casting doubt over its expansion.
Penalty charge notices relating Sadiq Khan’s Ultra-Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) worth £255m were outstanding at the end of last year, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Mayor of London’s flagship net zero scheme was owed more money from drivers in unpaid fines than it made during the financial year from 2022 to 2023, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed.
It comes as the Mayor is accused of using an “unintelligible” and “contradictory” consultation to expand the Ulez to all London boroughs next month by lawyers representing a coalition of five Conservative-run councils that is seeking to block the move at the High Court.
Motorists did not pay PCNs worth £255,545,388 in the last financial year and £120,123,660 between 2021 and 2022, in what has been described as a “revolt” against the controversial scheme.
The figures show the total value of outstanding PCNs last year surpassed the scheme’s 2022 revenues worth £224,633,003, of which £73.3m was paid through penalties, according to figures from Transport for London (TfL).
Thesesa Villiers, a former cabinet minister and MP for Chipping Barnet, said: “TfL is taking in vast amounts of money in Ulez fines, even before extension to the suburbs takes place. Of course everyone who received a valid penalty needs to pay it, but these figures for unpaid fines are alarming.
“If the Mayor presses ahead with his hated Ulez expansion scheme, it looks like we can expect TfL to dish out hundreds of millions in fines for people misunderstanding the scheme, especially at the boundaries on the edge of outer London.”
The planned Ulez extension, which is set to cover all London boroughs from August 29, will impact neighbouring areas and could see traffic in commuter towns increase as drivers park outside London and catch the train to avoid charges.
Last week, Mr Khan received a public dressing down from Office for Statistics Regulation chairman Robert Chote after he failed to provide data to support a claim that nine out of 10 cars driving in outer London met Ulez standards.
Karl McCartney MP, a Conservative who sits on the transport select committee, said: “At first glance these figures are not just worrying for those that seek to overly and overtly tax motorists – and treat them as ‘cash cows’ as Sadiq Khan the current Mayor of London has done throughout his woeful tenure – but are also a warning for any other Labour politician thinking of imposing such Ulez schemes.They are unfair and unjust taxes.
“The phenomenal rise in the last two or three years in the amounts wilfully not paid, and the sheer numbers of drivers who must have made a conscious decision to no longer be ripped off by Sadiq Khan, makes any rational person realise that these numbers show a large number of drivers revolting on the Ulez scheme and refusing to pay.”
He added: “It is an unjust tax and the Labour Mayor London Sadiq Khan will pay the price at the ballot box, as evidenced in other areas like Cambridge with similar unpopular schemes.”
England’s low emission zones, which have popped up in cities such as Birmingham, Oxford, and Cambridge, have raked in £722m in fines and charges since 2018, with some councils earning more in fines than was made through drivers paying the charges.
Gareth Bacon, MP for Orpington who formerly led the Conservative’s in the London Assembly, said: “I would be amazed if they [TfL] are not concerned about not having £255m. The people who live in central London accept the Ulez as an air quality measure. [But in outer London] it is a revenue-raising measure. This is absolutely a revenue raising exercise.
“If he [Sadiq Khan] succeeds in extending then the level of non-compliance will go up substantially.”
He added the policy risked becoming “increasingly without teeth”, adding: “People are telling you they basically don’t regard it as legitimate.”
Drivers face fines of £180 for failing to pay the Ulez charge, reduced to £90 pounds if it is paid within 14 days. If no payment is made the PCN rises to £250, followed by a recovery order taking the fine to £258.
Christina Calderato, TfL’s director of strategy and policy, said: “TfL pursues payments for all penalties we issue both in the UK and overseas but we would rather no one needed to pay the charge. Any net revenues raised by the Ulez are reinvested into running and improving London’s transport network, such as expanding bus routes in outer London.
“A successful larger Ulez is one that leads to cleaner air and generates ever smaller net revenues or surpluses, as has been the case with the previous expansion to inner London where people switched to greener vehicles and more public and sustainable forms of transport, such as walking and cycling.”
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