Diesel scrappage scheme worth up to £2k on the way as PM overrules Chris Grayling and Andrea Leadsom
Drivers will be able to trade in their old motors for more environmentally friendly ones with government help
THERESA May has overruled two Cabinet ministers to insist on introducing a diesel scrappage worth up to £2,000 per car.
Ministers will unveil a plan to tackle air pollution to comply with a court demand in the next seven days.
It is expected to include a ‘toxin tax’ on diesel vehicles when they enter up to 10 cities around the UK.
But to compensate drivers affected, the PM has insisted on a scheme where they can trade in their old motors for more environmentally friendly ones with government cash help.
It also emerged yesterday that the scrappage scheme may be limited to just the most polluted areas of the country.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom both opposed the move on grounds of its huge potential £2bn cost.
But Mrs May has ruled it is wrong to punish drivers who had been urged by previous governments to buy diesel cars as the most environmentally friendly option.
On a trip to Saudi Arabia 10 days, the PM insisted she was “very conscious” of not hitting motorists who have tried to do the right thing in the past.
No10 also wants the crackdown to focus more on lorries and buses instead of private cars as the bigger polluters.
The proportion of diesel vehicles on British roads increased from 20 per cent in 2005 to 37.8 per cent in 2015.
There are 11.2 million diesel cars on the road, with a fifth of them – 1.9 million - more than 12 years old.
The AA has claimed a scrappage scheme may not cost the government anything at all.
Its president Edmund King said: “It could be fiscally neutral. If it is dependent on the purchase of a new low-emission car, the government will automatically get 20 per cent VAT, plus on most new cars there is an addition to the vehicle excise duty”.
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But warning of difficulties with it, RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding added: “It is not a simple matter of taking the oldest cars out of circulation.
“The worst polluters could well be much more recent models that do high mileages in congested towns and cities.”
Commons Environment Committee chair and Tory MP Neil Parish said: “Any proposed scheme should be targeted and proportionate”.