No charge Clean Air Zone for Greater Manchester is a ‘truly great outcome’, Burnham says

Andy Burnham says the government’s decision to not impose a charging clean air zone in Greater Manchester is a ‘truly a great outcome’.

Ministers confirmed on Thursday morning (23 January) the mayor’s ‘investment-led approach’ will go ahead. It aims to reduce pollution with an £86 million package to invest in cleaner buses and taxis, and reduce congestion on key routes like Regent Road.

The announcement brings a three-year saga to an end, after plans to charge some motorists up to £60 a day for driving on the region’s roads were put on hold after a huge public backlash at the start of 2022.

The mayor’s alternative plan was unveiled in December 2023, and was waiting for government sign-off since then.

“It’s great news,” Mr Burnham said. “We have been arguing for the investment-led approach to clean up the air for quite some months

It’s great this government has listened to Greater Manchester and is backing our approach.

“The critical thing is no charging zone for Greater Manchester. This is truly a great outcome for Greater Manchester.”

The mayor said the final decision was made now because ‘the government needed to see we would deliver [the Bee Network] when we said we would’.

“The successful completion of bus regulation gave the government confidence air quality would improve,” he added.

However, the government’s decision is unlikely to put the issue of pollution in Greater Manchester to bed, as the ‘investment-led’ plan only hits legal emissions limits by rounding down.

Mr Burnham said ‘clean air campaigners’, who have continued to argue for stricter measures than the new plan, ‘should be celebrating this with us’. 

“Investing in public transport is a better way of getting clean air,” he went on. “With the old plan people would have not been able to afford to clean up their vehicles and be stuck with paying the charge and no cleaner air.”

Another group unhappy with the new scheme are Hackney Carriage drivers, who believe they should get more support to upgrade their vehicles.

One member of the Hackney Drivers Association, called Asef, appeared on BBC Radio Manchester with the mayor. He said: “Overall I think it’s going to be a massive issue in the near future. We have seen with rail strikes how debilitating it can be.

“I would like to ask Andy Burnham himself what his expectations of a driver is? 700 out of 1,100 vehicles need to be upgraded.

“The most recent statistics [show] it’s £95,000 to upgrade your vehicle.”

In response, the Labour politician said: “I am aware of how expensive it is. But it does not have to be that expensive. 

“It only has to be Euro-6 [vehicle standard] and not all used vehicles will be that price. We are interested if we can help a little bit. There’s a few things we can do… one is have a proper discussion on how we do that.”

Ethan Davies, Local Democracy Reporter