In light of the House of Commons Environment Audit Committee’s report on air pollution in the UK and in particular London, Murad Qureshi AM believes London is now the bad boy of air quality in Europe. He has regularly stated how little the Mayor has done to improve London’s air quality and now points out how the government’s national vehicle scrappage scheme has helped London.
Murad said: "Our air quality is giving London a bad name in Europe and now the Environment Audit Committee’s report confirms that we have become the bad boy of air pollution in Europe. Boris doesn’t like to acknowledge it but the Government’s national measures, such as the scrappage scheme, are making a difference to London’s air quality. Given that the scheme has helped take 30,000 old bangers off the roads, including black cabs and small vans, an extension of the scheme would be useful."
Much of London’s pollution comes from older private vehicles, over which the Mayor says he has no control, but by helping van owners, cabbies and others who need to drive into central London for their work to renew their old vehicle for a new, cleaner vehicle he could make a real improvement to health and quality of life in the capital. 30,000 of London’s vehicles have been renewed under the national vehicle scrappage scheme, 225 of these are black cabs.
Murad added: "New vehicles are much cleaner than ones that are even a decade old and central London is where we have the worst air quality problems in the country, so it would make sense to target vehicles where we can have the biggest impact."
Notes
Murad Qureshi is a Londonwide Labour Assembly Member and is the Assembly’s Labour Group Environment spokesperson.
Details of the Environment Audit Committee’s report can be found here:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmenvaud/229/229i.pdf
Details of the national vehicle scrappage scheme can be found here:
http://www.berr.gov.uk/Policies/business-sectors/automotive/vehicle-scrappage-scheme
Details of the EU announcement on London’s air quality can be found at:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1908&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en