Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has launched a new scrappage scheme for heavy vehicles in advance of the tighter Low Emission Zone (LEZ) standards, which will come into force on 1 March 2021.

The scheme offers grants of £15,000 to scrap a heavy vehicle and replace it with a compliant vehicle, or to retrofit diesel vehicles up to the cleanest Euro VI standards. It is open to sole traders, small businesses with 50 or fewer employees and charities and targets HGVs and specialist vehicles exceeding 3.5 tonnes and buses, coaches and minibuses exceeding 5 tonnes.

 More than 100 organisations have already pre-registered interest in the scheme, which will operate on a first-come, first-served basis.

The heavy vehicle scrappage scheme follows the successful programme for small businesses and charities to scrap older, more polluting vans and minibuses. The van scrappage scheme ran for 18 months and has committed enough support to take 5,000 vehicles off London’s roads. The scheme remains open for charities, given their vital work during the coronavirus pandemic. Eligible low income and disabled Londoners can still apply to scrap non-ULEZ compliant cars and motorcycles, as they have been able to since the scheme launched in October last year.

Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Shirley Rodrigues, said: “The Ultra Low Emission Zone has already cut toxic air by more than a third and with tighter Low Emission Zone standards due to come in next year we want to ensure there is help for businesses and charities switching coaches or lorries to cleaner greener vehicles. 

“While we’re doing all we can in the capital, we now need the Government to match our levels of ambition and provide targeted national scrappage funding that supports all those small businesses who want to do the right thing and switch to cleaner vehicles across the UK.”