Ulez expansion is a ‘money-raising exercise’, says Transport Secretary

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. I think he should think again Transport Secretary “It’s not about air pollution, it’s about a money-raising exercise and this is absolutely not the time to be putting all those costs on hard-pressed and hard-working Londoners and those in the area outside London.” Asked if he would put an end to the expansion if he had the power to do so, Mr Harper said: “Yes, I don’t have the power, though.” Mr Harper explained on LBC’s Nick Ferrari programme that the Government will be backing an amendment to the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Bill to make changes to the 1999 law that created the role of mayor of London. The Transport Secretary said: “One of the problems here is that a number of London local authorities don’t support this scheme coming into force, so for the future, we are backing an amendment, a backbench amendment to a piece of legislation which will mean in future any road user charging schemes like this would have to be also backed by London boroughs. “And that’s important because if you look at the mayor of London’s own website for his Project 2030 scheme, he wants to roll out more road user charging schemes, pay-per-mile schemes across London.” Rejecting some of Mr Harper’s claims, Mr Khan told BBC Breakfast: “I just bumped into Mark Harper as he was leaving the studio and I think he made a couple of factual errors, which is really worth me clarifying. In a couple of years’ time, TfL have predicted there will be no additional money made because the number of non-compliant vehicles, but every penny net made is used to reinvest in public transport, improving buses in outer London, improving public transport in our city.” Speaking on Times Radio, the Labour mayor also ruled out a pay-per-mile scheme while he is in office, adding: “It’s not on the agenda, it’s not on the table.