Surprise! London’s tax on polluting cars made everyone much healthier (updated)
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- ULEZ expansion cut NO2 by 27% and PM2.5 by 31% in outer London, with Central London seeing a 54% NO2 drop — 99% of air quality monitors citywide recorded improvements.
- Deprived London communities saw an 80% reduction in residents exposed to illegal pollution levels, an environmental-justice dimension that often gets buried in coverage.
- A Queen Mary University of London study found children's lung function in London caught up with Luton — a nearby town with no low-emission zone — within four years of implementation.
- The share of London children with clinically impaired lung function fell from 14% to 9%, a steeper drop than Luton's 9% to 7%.
- London met legal NO2 limits in 2025, 184 years ahead of King's College London's 2019 projection of 193 years to compliance.
- Between June 2023 and September 2024, non-compliant vehicles on London roads dropped 58%, helped by a £200m scrappage scheme that removed 15,232 old vehicles.
- Mayor Sadiq Khan expanded ULEZ from Central London to all of Greater London (~9 million residents) despite opposition from former PM Rishi Sunak — and won re-election.
Why it matters: The ULEZ delivered measurable health gains — cutting NO2 27% and PM2.5 31% citywide, and shrinking London children with impaired lung function from 14% to 9% in four years. These reductions should translate to over 1,000 lives saved annually, given London's previous ~4,000 air-pollution deaths.
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