There’s been pressure from Local Government leaders over previous weeks, demanding the introduction of a £1.5 billion vehicle scrappage scheme from the Central Government. The scheme would incentivise motorists to look at buying new lower emission vehicles in an effort to reduce our national emissions while also stirring up interest in the new car market, which has fallen in the last two years.
If the scheme was to be rolled out, it is thought that it would lead to removing half a million high-polluting vehicles off our road networks.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, pledged on the 14th of February that he would double the amount of funding provided to a vehicle scrappage scheme to £48 million, as part of the City of Londons movements towards an Ultra Low Emissions Zone.
It’s just 6 weeks until the introduction of Londons ‘ULEZ’ and until now there has been £25 million pledged to help motorists get out of their high emission old cars and into lower emission transport. The Mayor announced the increased pledge in the ‘scrap for cash’ scheme at this weeks ‘#LoveCleanAir’ summit.
This news comes at a time where a network of local governors from across the country have urged the government to commit £1.5 billion to a government-funded vehicle scrappage scheme, or ‘vehicle upgrade’ scheme. These representatives will be joined by Khan at this year's Clean Air Summit to discuss the proposition which could see up to 488,647 high-polluting cars taken off our streets.
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, backed Sadiq Khan, saying: “Air pollution is linked to the equivalent of 1,200 early deaths each year in Greater Manchester alone.
“It’s our largest environmental risk to public health which needs to be tackled as quickly as possible. Greater Manchester’s ten local authorities are showing leadership in developing a Clean Air Plan to tackle nitrogen dioxide roadside emissions for a population of nearly three million people across 500 square miles.”
There is another side to this story though. All of this is centred around a government-funded vehicle scrappage scheme when there are already manufacturer-funded scrappage schemes in place which could save consumers a considerable amount of money when upgrading to a new vehicle.
Hyundai is offering up to a massive £4,000 discount off their models, with the i30, i40, Tucson, IONIQ, Santa Fe and more all included.
Then, Mazda is also offering up to £6,000 off brand new models in their range when you trade in a qualifying vehicle. This deal includes top sellers Mazda3, Mazda6, Mazda CX-3 and Mazda CX-5 among others. Find out about those deals here.
KIA have jumped in on the action too. They’re offering up to £3,000 off brand new models regardless of the value of your part ex (as long as it meets qualifying criteria.) This deal includes the all-new KIA Niro and also offers discounts on the popular Picanto and Stonic models.
And last but not least, Renault. Again, up to £3,000 off certain brand new Renault models when you trade in a qualifying car. This can be used against pretty much every model in the Renault range (not the RS models) so you could get a big chunk off the all-electric Zoe, or a Clio, or a Captur and so on and so forth.
So, what do you think? Is it about time the government stepped in and put some real effort into getting polluting cars off our streets, or are the manufacturers themselves already doing enough? Let us know in the comments!