Green Party accuses Sadiq Khan of allowing Tories to ‘dictate’ transport policies

By Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

The Green Party has accused Sadiq Khan of allowing the Tories to “dictate” his transport policies, by “cowardly” ruling out a ‘pay-per-mile’ road user charging system.

The mayor had repeatedly said in recent years that he wanted to introduce such a system.

But last year Mr Khan said he scrapped the plans, claiming they were no longer necessary following his London-wide expansion of the Ultra low emission zone (Ulez) in August 2023.

His Conservative opponent, Susan Hall, said throughout the recent mayoral election that he was lying, and would bring in a pay-per-mile system if re-elected. Mr Khan denied this, and included a line in his manifesto explicitly ruling it out.

In a Q&A session with journalists this week, the London Assembly’s Green group said that by cancelling the plans, the Labour mayor was “tying one hand behind his back” at the same time as trying to meet ambitious climate and traffic reduction targets.

“That is removing one of the most powerful tools he has to reduce transport carbon, and he’s just ruling it out completely,” said Green group leader Caroline Russell.

“He’s allowed the divisive, Daily Mail, war-on-the-motorist piece to shape his policy, and to limit him in terms of what he can do.”

Ms Russell argued that Mr Khan should already have introduced a form of pay-per-mile charging, saying that “small, tiny fees per mile” – based on several factors like the size of vehicle being driven – would have been “much fairer” than the “simple, big, chunky fee” of the Ulez.

Zack Polanski, the Greens’ national deputy leader, said the local elections across England had shown that politicians who met their net zero ambitions were rewarded at the ballot box.

The Greens vowed to continue pressuring the mayor to clamp down on private car use and instead encourage “shared mobility”.

Mr Khan has said he wants to achieve net zero carbon emissions in London by 2030, a full two decades ahead of the Government’s national 2050 target.

According to data collected by City Hall, London’s net emissions fell 25 per cent between 2015 and 2021. Government statistics suggest that emissions fell 14 per cent across the country in the same period.

Mr Khan’s 2018 transport strategy meanwhile set out his aim for 80 per cent of all trips in London to be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport by 2041.

“This four years has got to be used really strategically, because, if we’re going to reduce the transport miles driven on London’s streets per year, we’ve got to have some real changes,” Ms Russell said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Khan said: “The mayor’s re-election shows he has the mandate for ambitious green policies and he is determined to achieve his mission to make London a net-zero carbon city by 2030, while strengthening alternatives to private car use to reduce congestion.

“His track record speaks for itself, with 48,000 fewer vehicles seen driving on an average since the London-wide ULEZ was implemented, and a reduction of 800,000 tonnes of CO2 over the past four years”.

She added that Mr Khan “is the greenest mayor ever”, pointing to his recent manifesto pledges of fully electrifying the capital’s bus fleet by 2030, putting air pollution filters, heat pumps and solar panels in schools, boosting bike parking spaces and electric vehicle charging points, and planting more trees, among other promises.

She also pointed to his recent freezing of TfL fares, his creation of the Superloop network of express bus services in outer London, and his quadrupling of the number of cycleways since 2016.

Pictured top: London mayor Sadiq Khan (Picture: Noah Vickers)