London commuters are our ‘most important’ e-bike users, says Lime boss July 31, 2023 London’s commuters are our “most important” riders, the CEO of the e-bike operator Lime has said. Speaking to City A.M. Wayne Ting, Lime’s chief said that “commuting is the most important use case” for the popular vehicles as demand soars in the capital. Lime has seen a 10 per cent monthly increase in riders in [...]
Electric vehicle charging roll-out slowed by local authority delays, research shows July 31, 2023 The roll-out of electric vehicle charge points has been slowed by delays at the local authority level and is currently set to fall well short of government targets, new research has found. FOI data obtained by the law firm RPC shows 8,000 chargers were installed by local authorities in the UK over the last year, [...]
ULEZ: High Court backs London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s controversial emissions charge July 28, 2023 Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ plan got a major boost today after a court threw out a judicial review claiming the scheme to charge drivers who fail to meet emissions standards was unlawful. Plans to widen the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ), already in place across inner London, slated to expand throughout Greater London’s 32 boroughs from [...]
Rishi Sunak and Sadiq Khan at loggerheads over London housebuilding July 27, 2023 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has threatened to wade into mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s efforts on housebuilding in the capital. The politicians traded verbal blows today as the PM accused the mayor of failing to build enough homes for Londoners, while Khan branded his claims “desperate nonsense”. Speaking during a visit to a development in [...]
Don’t ‘clobber’ Londoners with ULEZ, Rachel Reeves says July 27, 2023 Now is not the right time to “clobber” Londoners with the ULEZ charge, Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has said. The shadow chancellor has weighed in on the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ) expansion row engulfing City Hall and Labour politics in the wake of the Uxbridge by-election defeat. She told the Sun she was [...]
Loss of tax-free shopping costing the UK £4.1bn, say London bosses July 26, 2023 Scrapping the tourist tax could generate £4.1bn annually for the UK economy, new research suggests, as a cluster of prominent business owners call for the government to reinstate VAT shopping for international tourists. Rishi Sunak scrapped the tax which saw international shoppers able to claim 20 per cent back with their purchases. It was largely [...]
Welcome to the Great Green Delay, and Khan’s Ulez expansion is the first victim July 26, 2023 As Sadiq Khan’s expansion of the Ultra Low Emission zone became a flashpoint for the Uxbridge by-election, other green policies face being quietly shelved, writes Comment & Features editor Sascha O’Sullivan.
Tory MPs pile pressure on Sunak to retain green policies July 25, 2023 Senior Tory MPs have warned Rishi Sunak against backing away from policies aimed at tackling climate change. Labour’s loss in the recent Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election has been interpreted by some as a de-facto referendum on the controversial ULEZ expansion. Danny Beales, who lost to the Conservative candidate Steve Tuckwell by just 495 votes, [...]
Date for petrol car ban ‘immovable,’ says Michael Gove July 25, 2023 The 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales is an immovable deadline, Cabinet minister Michael Gove has insisted after Rishi Sunak cast doubt on the policy. The Housing Secretary warned costly plans to tackle the climate crisis could create a “backlash” as ministers come under pressure from the Tory right to relax existing pledges. Amid [...]
Gove planning shake-up: ‘We need housing today, not tomorrow’ July 24, 2023 Michael Gove will loosen planning laws to allow vacant shops to be converted into homes as part of his latest efforts to tackle the UK’s housing crisis. On Monday the minister for housing and levelling up revealed a slew of planning reforms as well as a further commitment to building over 1m new homes across [...]