Sadiq Khan might ship non-ULEZ compliant vehicles to troops in Ukraine

Sadiq Khan might ship vehicles that fail to fulfill London‘s ULEZ requirements to Ukraine, the Government has discovered.

City Hall’s scrappage scheme has seen Londoners declare roughly £158 million after buying and selling in non-compliant vehicles, with one other £50 million now added to the fund.

Nearly 65,000 automotive and motorcycle house owners and 50,000 van house owners utilized for the £2,000 scrappage cost, which they will put in the direction of new autos that meet the requirements required by ULEZ.

As the scheme’s title suggests, most of the vehicles now in City Hall’s possession had been destined for scrapyards.

But in an uncommon twist, the Government has discovered it could be authorized for the London Mayor to ship the vehicles to Eastern Europe.

Mr Khan mentioned in 2023 that he didn’t consider London officers might legally ship the autos to Ukraine, the place they could possibly be used to assist the native struggle effort in opposition to Russia.

Among the scrapped vehicles obtained by City Hall for the reason that scrappage scheme started are 4x4s and different comparable autos that could possibly be used to hold troops and in any other case help fighters.

He requested Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, whether or not this was the case in a letter final December.

Mr Harper responded to the London Mayor final week, confirming that the Government didn’t establish a “legal barrier” stopping officers from exporting the vehicles.

He wrote: “We do not consider there to be any legal barrier to allowing vehicles to be donated to Ukraine.

“You have identified legal obstacles that relate to the processes and design of your scheme and DfT [Department for Transport] and DLUHC [Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities] officials have been working with TfL [Transport for London] to identify routes to overcome these.”

The transport secretary added in his letter that any car donated to the Ukrainian military can be “highly unlikely” to return to the UK.

He additionally highlighted a DVLA scheme that will notify TfL when a car is donated to Ukraine, avoiding “multiple scrappage payments being paid for the same vehicle”.

The response was welcomed by Mr Khan, who hailed the “encouraging news” in a publish on X, previously often called Twitter.

He wrote: “Encouraging news from the Transport Secretary – let’s keep working together to get this done.”