Ulez Helped London Children's Lungs Catch Up, Study Finds
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- Sadiq Khan expanded London's Ulez first in 2021 to inner London and again in 2023 citywide, making it the world's largest clean-air zone, after facing opposition from every mainstream party including his own.
- Queen Mary University of London researchers tracked lung growth in more than 3,400 children in Luton and central London from 2019 to 2024, finding that London children started with significantly poorer lung function but caught up during the Ulez period.
- The proportion of London children with clinically impaired lung function fell from 14% to 9% over the five-year study, according to the Queen Mary research.
- Imperial College London research cited by Khan estimated deaths associated with air pollution in the capital fell by around 40% between 2019 and 2024.
- King's College London research projected it would take almost two centuries to bring NO2 within legal limits without action; Khan says London reached legal NO2 levels 184 years earlier than predicted after the Ulez.
- At The Aldgate school, where Khan first saw toxic air concerns a decade ago, playground nitrogen dioxide levels fell 48% between 2016 and last year's measurement.
- Khan frames the Ulez as a children's health intervention rather than a 'war on drivers,' arguing critics have 'cynically' turned public health into a 'crude culture war.'
Why it matters: Khan is using peer-reviewed clinical evidence — not just air-quality metrics — to vindicate a policy that every major London party, including his own, originally opposed. The 14%-to-9% drop in clinically impaired lung function among children gives low-emission zones a measurable health dividend beyond pollution figures, strengthening the case for similar schemes in other cities.
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