Greater Manchester clean air plan provides £21.4m green vehicle fund for taxi and PHV industry
Updated: Jun 22, 2021
Greater Manchester has published its final clean air plan providing £21.4m for GM-licensed taxi and private hire vehicle owners, drivers and operators to switch to cleaner vehicles.
In total Greater Manchester (GM) has secured over £120m in government funding to support local businesses upgrade to cleaner, compliant vehicles so they can travel in a GM-wide Clean Air Zone without incurring a daily charge.
Applications for funding support will open from November this year. This will be essential to support impacted vehicle owners, which includes taxi and private hire drivers, while facing the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In light of feedback following last year’s eight-week consultation on the plans and the impact of COVID-19, particularly on small businesses, GM-registered taxi/private hire owners and LGV owners will be given more time, money and options to upgrade.
This includes temporary exemptions for an additional year (until 31 May 2023) for all hackney and private hire vehicles (PHV) licensed by a GM District. Vans, minibuses, GM-registered coaches and wheelchair-accessible taxis were already exempt from daily charges until 2023.
Following consultation and protracted negotiations with government, GM has increased funding support per vehicle for HGVs, coaches, vans, GM Hackney cabs and PHVs. Vans can now access up to £4,000 towards the replacement of a vehicle – £1,000 more than initially proposed – and GM Hackney Cabs can get up to £10,000.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “Greater Manchester were the pioneers of the industrial revolution, now we are leading a green revolution, backed with over £120 million that we’ve secured to hand over to businesses to support making their vehicles compliant.
“We listened hard to what business owners wanted and, as a result, taxi drivers are being given more time, more funding and more options. This is part of our wider commitment to put GM-licensed hackney and private hire drivers first, and to lobby government to give us the powers to ensure that only locally licensed drivers are able to operate here.
“The fact is that air pollution is not a problem that is going to go away on its own. Not only has our plan been directed by national government, we’ve taken this seriously and fought to get a plan which has the right funding support for residents and to protect those most vulnerable as well as our trade and businesses. This plan will also have major health and wellbeing benefits for people living near motorways or major roads as there will be less polluting vehicles and HGVs using them.
“Our Clean Air Zone is only one piece of the jigsaw. We’re also fully integrating our public transport system – the Bee Network – and building the UK’s largest cycling and walking network. Today I am also very pleased to announce that urban bike share company Beryl has been named as our delivery partner for cycle hire, with the first bikes going on the ground later this year. Our cycle hire will be one of the largest docked systems outside London and I cannot wait to use the new bikes myself as a way to get from A to B. We’re making huge strides towards our plans to build back greener and be carbon neutral by 2038.”
Greater Manchester lead for Clean Air, Councillor Andrew Western, said: “We want Greater Manchester to be a healthy, sustainable and happy place to grow up, get on and get old and we can’t afford to be complacent about this globally significant issue.
“Over the past year, we’ve rightly focused on supporting our people and our businesses through the terrible impacts of the pandemic. As we now look to recover, and after considering the impact of COVID-19, we want to continue helping those most affected, including small businesses and taxi drivers, by giving them more time as we look to build back better and greener with certainty.”
Grants will be available for those who need it most, including private hire vehicles (PHV), coaches, HGVs and vans. There are also more options for replacement and retrofit for hackney carriages, PHVs, minibuses and vans.
Greater Manchester has also secured funding for over 30 taxi-only electric vehicle (EV) charging points at strategic sites across the city-region.
There are currently around 360 publicly accessible EV charging devices in Greater Manchester with around 700 connectors.
A new Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Strategy, to be published in July, will set out ambitious plans so that by 2030 anyone who chooses to travel by car or van will be able to confidently drive an EV knowing that they can recharge it quickly and conveniently across the region.
