Asked by Baroness Rawlings To ask Her Majesty’s Government
what steps they are taking to reduce levels of pollution caused by
vehicle emissions in London and other larger cities. The
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Transport
(Baroness Sugg) (Con) My Lords, we have committed £3.5
billion for air quality and cleaner transport,...Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking
to reduce levels of pollution caused by vehicle emissions
in London and other larger cities.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Transport (Baroness Sugg) (Con)
My Lords, we have committed £3.5 billion for air quality
and cleaner transport, including investment to support the
uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles and to reduce bus
emissions. We are implementing tougher real driving
emissions tests and helping local authorities to tackle
pollution hotspots. We work closely with the mayor, who is
responsible for air quality in London, and we will publish
our plans for the pathway to zero-emission road vehicles
and a new clean air strategy later this year.
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(Con)
My Lords, I think the Minister for her encouraging Answer,
but why is pollution still so bad? According to King’s
College London, 9,400 people die a year and thousands more
suffer lung diseases caused by traffic congestion. Average
speed has slowed down from 12 miles per hour to seven miles
per hour, which is hardly progress. Does the Minister agree
that disastrous traffic management is causing not only
pollution but mental stress and loss to, for and of
business? Perhaps despite their worthiness, there is a need
for better qualified planners on TfL and local councils.
Will Her Majesty’s Government, who are ultimately
responsible, encourage the new Minister, , to put a black cab
driver, who would understand traffic problems, on the board
as his brother Boris did years ago?
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My Lords, air pollution poses the biggest environmental
threat to public health, and it is a particular threat to
the elderly, the young and those with existing health
issues. My noble friend makes a very sensible proposal to
have a black cab driver, an expert in roads and routes, on
the TfL board. I will certainly pass that suggestion on to
the new Minister for London. I know he is looking forward
to working closely with the mayor on many issues, including
how to tackle air quality.
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(Lab)
My Lords, does the Minister feel that pollution in London
and our major cities is being improved or made worse by the
Government’s decision to freeze fuel duty for the past
seven years, while public transport fares in London, as in
other major cities, have increased during that period by
between 15% and 50%?
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My Lords, many drivers obviously welcome the freeze in fuel
duty, but we have seen an increase in cars on the roads.
Air quality has improved significantly, but there is
increasing evidence of impacts on public health. We are
investing in vehicle retrofitting, ultra-low emission
vehicles, cycling and walking and are implementing tougher
real driving emissions tests. Later this year, we will
publish our clean air strategy to outline how we can tackle
air pollution more widely.
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(Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend herself meet with some black
cab drivers? If she does, will she listen very carefully to
what they say has been the result of reducing the lanes on
our major roads in London, caused very largely by the
creation of cycle lanes?
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My Lords, I would be happy to meet some black cab drivers
with my noble friend. The construction of bike lanes and
bus lanes and the pedestrianisation of many roads has
reduced the available space. Of course, cycle lanes are
welcome in order to protect cyclists and encourage cycling.
I understand that they have increased congestion, but we
want to encourage people to cycle.
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(CB)
My Lords, is the Minister certain that all vehicles pay a
sufficiently high road tax when driving in large cities? Is
this tax geared to the size of the vehicle involved?
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My Lords, vehicle excise duty was reformed on 1 April 2017
in order to make it fairer to motorists, to strengthen the
incentives to buy the cleanest cars and to ensure that
those who can afford a premium vehicle pay more. To
encourage manufacturers to bring the next generation of
diesels to the market quicker, we have introduced a
temporary levy on diesel cars.
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(LD)
My Lords, the Government are being sued for the third time
over the failure of their plans to tackle the air quality
issue as fast as possible. The current plan requires no
action in 45 of the local authorities that have identified
illegal levels of air pollution. Does the Minister accept
that every local authority with air pollution problems
should be required to take urgent action to reduce the
pollution caused by traffic?
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I agree that every local authority must do what it can to
reduce pollution caused by traffic. The noble Baroness is
right that although we meet the vast majority of targets,
we are one of 17 EU member states that are not meeting the
nitrogen dioxide limits. The main reason for that is the
lower than expected reduction in emissions from diesel
vehicles. We have a plan for tackling the roadside nitrogen
dioxide concentrations, which we published last year, and
have issued directives to 28 local authorities outside
London. They are already drawing on the £255 million fund
which we have made available to try to bring improvements
as quickly as possible.
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(Lab)
My Lords, to come back to the question not only of taxi
drivers but of all motor traffic, the reduction of lanes
which traffic can travel down means that more cars are taking
longer journeys than ever before at slower speeds. The
evidence is of course that the internal combustion engine is
less efficient and pollutes more at slow speeds, particularly
when it is idling. Can the Minister give us government
figures on the evidence of pollution being greater before
bike lanes are introduced than afterwards? This is an
important issue in the future planning of our cities.
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I am afraid I do not have this figures to hand but I will
certainly see if they are available and write to the noble
Lord. On combustion engines, we have committed to support the
uptake of low-emission vehicles and are investing in
alternative fuels. We have also introduced a clean air fund
to target areas which need that help.
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