It has been a year this week since London’s ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) was controversially extended to the boundary with Kent and the other home counties.

Alex Langridge takes a look at the impact the expansion has had and at what cost it has come to small business owners in the county who feared they would be hit hard in the pocket.

The ULEZ is an emission-based charging scheme in the capital that requires certain polluting vehicles declared to have high emissions driving within the zone to pay a daily charge of £12.50.

It has operated since April 2019 but initially only covered the same area of central London as the Congestion Charge before being expanded in October 2021 to all areas within the North and South Circular roads.

On August 29, 2023, it was controversially expanded again to include the greater London boroughs, including Bexley and Bromley, up to the borders with Dartford and Sevenoaks.

Before the expansion, residents living on and working across the Dartford-Bexley border were concerned as entering the ULEZ was often “unavoidable”.

Abbie Austen, who runs carpet cleaning business A Star Solutions, used to travel into the capital every day for work but now she makes the journey far les.

If she had continued to cross the border daily, she says it would have cost her around £4,000 a year, affecting her profit margins, as her van is not compliant.

Abbie, who is based in Medway, said although she did look to replace her vehicle, the monthly repayments were too pricey.

The 28-year-old added: “People were telling me to get a newer van but this van is good and reliable.

“I did look to buy another one but it was just so expensive.

“I cannot afford to enter the zone for just one job a day, not if I also have to enter the Lower Emission Zone or pay the Congestion Charge.

“It is not worth it with the cost of fuel and equipment rising too. I would lose around £40 per job without even starting.”

Abbie, who has owned A Star Solutions since 2019, claims she is losing around £1,000 a week as she has stopped accepting as many London-based clients.

Although she would still be making a profit if she paid the daily charges, she said it was not sustainable in the long term paired with the increasing cost of living.

I think a lot of people have had to diversify their business

Abbie said: “I do not want to go into ULEZ but I have missed out on around seven to eight jobs a week because of it.

“At first, I could not believe it because I was losing lots of jobs. It was a shock as I still had bills to pay and I did get behind on them.

“I had to trust it would come back and started to look at what I could change just to make up the extra money.

“I had to increase my prices and although some people did understand, others did not want to pay the extra.

“With the cost of living, everything has gone up and people want the cheapest job so they are getting other firms in.”

To try and improve her profit margins, she started advertising her services in newer areas such as south and east Kent despite the extra travel time.

The businesswoman added: “When you start something new, you have to build up connections. It was like almost starting a new business again.

“I now try not to take as many jobs in ULEZ and have shifted my business more into Kent.

“I am in a position to have options and go places that are not in London.

“I think a lot of people have had to diversify their business.”

Another person who decided to move jobs and work further into Kent as opposed to London was scaffolder Jay Collings.

The 43-year-old feared he would be forced out of a job if the boundary expanded and a year later he said he had to move firms to avoid driving into the ULEZ daily.

Jay, who is from Gravesend, added: “I have changed my life around. I do not go to London anymore.

“I have given my job up because of it as I could not afford to pay £12.50 every day.

“It has worked out as I got a new job quickly but it was a shame.

“I am on less money and have got to work longer hours but it is one of those things. Nothing is easy in life.

“It did not kick me in the teeth as much as I thought it would.

“The most gutting thing is I do not go to my favourite fishing shops anymore as I do not want to pay the extra money to visit them.”

It did not kick me in the teeth as much as I thought it would

The keen angler used to frequent stores in Crayford and Bexleyheath but as his vehicle is non-compliant he has stopped going.

Although Jay, who has been a scaffolder for 28 years, did consider buying a new van that met the restrictions, he, like Abbie, said the monthly repayments were unaffordable.

As he was looking to buy a 2017 plate, it would have also cost him an extra £700 in insurance as it would be newer and more desirable.

He added: “I did not want to buy a new vehicle. My van has never let me down but even if I did the costs were too high.

“It was not worth it. It would have equalled out to the same price of paying the toll.”

The zone was made bigger despite a continued fightback from residents living in or near the boundary, and bordering Conservative-led councils which launched a failed High Court appeal against the Labour mayor’s plans.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the move was “one of the toughest decisions" he had made but was necessary to address the capital's dirty air.

According to the London-wide ULEZ Six Month Report, published at the end of July this year, pollutant emissions across the capital in 2023 are “dramatically lower” than expected if the zone had not been expanded.

Harmful roadside nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations are also 21% lower in outer London than they would have been without the new scheme, improving the air quality in the area.

It added: “Long-term trends indicate that average concentrations in all London zones improved at a faster rate than the rest of England average over the same time.

“This is particularly notable in outer London where concentrations have improved more rapidly over recent years and are now similar to the rest of England's average, which has historically been lower.”

The report found areas outside of the capital also see the impacts of ULEZ, with roadside NO2 within five kilometres of the Greater London boundary on average 9% lower in 2023.

It also said there were 90,000 fewer non-compliant vehicles detected in the ULEZ zone in February 2024 compared to June 2023 - a 53% reduction.

However, the study also confirmed that while the recent ULEZ expansion has brought about positive changes, its effects are not comparable in scale to those of the scheme’s original introduction in central London five years ago where harmful pollutants were almost halved.

It also does not provide a full picture of the impact of the extension on pollutants, conceding “a longer period is needed to accurately measure these”.

Meanwhile, millions of pounds worth of ULEZ fines are also still going unpaid despite threats from bailiffs as Kent motorists continue to revolt against the charge.

A KentOnline freedom of information request to Transport for London, which operates the scheme, revealed earlier this year only a quarter of fines dished out to motorists with vehicles registered in the county had been paid in the first two quarters it had been operational.