Londoners divided on ULEZ expansion according to YouGov poll

Ever since its inception in 2019, the London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) has been a fiercely debated topic for motorists and Londoners.

Following its expansion to cover the whole of the Greater London area on August 29 2023, the topic has divided residents of the capital.

The ULEZ is designed to limit the number of older, high-polluting vehicles from entering and travelling through London – and those that don’t mean the requirements must pay £12.50 a day.

For car drivers, this means that in order to avoid paying the fee, their vehicle much meet Euro 6 emission standards for diesels and Euro 4 emission standards for petrol-powered cars.

However, petrol cars that meet the emission standards are usually vehicles registered with the DVLA after 2006 (or after September 2015 for diesels).

With politicians divided over the scheme, and with ‘cost of living’ being the biggest issue also impacting Londoners – what do they really think of the ULEZ expansion?

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According to a new YouGov survey, 47% of Londoners support the expansion of ULEZ to cover all London boroughs – and another 42% oppose it now covering from Enfield in the north, to Croydon in the south.

However, different areas of the capital are torn over the decision. There now appears to be a clear divide in opinion between inner and outer London.

For residents in the centre, 62% support the expansion – compared to just 26% who are against it.

However, 51% of those in the newly expanded area are opposed to the ULEZ now impacting their area – with 38% supporting the scheme.

YouGov put the split down to ULEZ already covering most of inner London, and residents in this area being less likely to own a vehicle compared to those in outer London.

The survey from YouGov also looked into the support provided to Londoners following the expansion.

In fact, 50% of respondents stated that London Mayor Sadiq Khan should be doing more to support drivers of non-compliant vehicles.

Worryingly for the Mayor, only 26% of those surveyed believed that he was doing everything he could to help residents in the expanded area. An even more concerning statistic is that amongst his own Labour voters, only 47% judged that he wasn’t doing enough.

Due to the rising opposition to the ULEZ expansion, there have been many news reports on increased vandalism of cameras for the scheme.

Prior to the expansion, 37% of those living in the capital had heard a great deal or fair amount about the vandalism, but 51% were against the perpetrators. Only 32% supported their actions.

What do you make of the survey, the ULEZ expansion, and the vandals targeting the cameras? Leave your comments below.