Call to make London LEZ Euro 6-only by 2020

The Institute for Public Policy Research, which describes itself as “the UK’s leading progressive thintank” has urged further restrictions on diesel-engined vehicles in London to combat levels of air pollution it said were a “public health problem of the highest order.”

The IPPR is not calling for a blanket ban on diesel-engined road vehicles in London. As far as the freight industry is concerned, its report, Lethal and Illegal: Solving London’s air pollution crisis, mainly suggests broadening and accelerating measures already proposed.

It claims that diesel-engined road vehicles are responsible for around 40 per cent of the capital’s NOx and PM pollution, and that reducing the levels of diesel cars to five per cent of inner London traffic would bring over 99 per cent of the city into compliance with legal limits on NO2 levels.

So far as freight goes, it suggests extending the Ultra-Low Emissions Zone up to the North and South Circular Roads by 2019, raising the standard required of light commercials operating in the LEZ from Euro 3 to Euro 5 and increasing the standard required of heavy commercials and coaches from the current Euro 4 to Euro 6.

These measures should all be in place by 2020, the thinktank suggests.