This is a little outside my area, but after reading about the clean air zone proposals for Manchester, I both agree that something HAS to be done about air pollution in Manchester, and also that the current support and help for small businesses etc is totally insufficient.
I was noodling around with some thoughts, and I have no idea how workable this would be, but it seemed worth writing down and sharing, so here it is:
Scrappage scheme for polluting vehicles
Introduce a scrappage scheme for polluting vehicles used by businesses in areas with a CAZ in place – so heavy/light goods vehicles/taxis.
The value you get is based on a combination of the market value of the vehicle and the amount of CO2 that would be saved by taking it off the road, i.e., an owner should get MORE for scrapping it than just selling it.
This value can then be applied to the purchase of a more efficient vehicle like a hybrid or a fully electric vehicle, which would not attract the CAZ charge.
The rest of the new vehicle purchase is a loan backed by the government, which attaches to the vehicle and not the person or business. So the purchaser of the vehicle owns the percentage of the total value of the vehicle covered by the scrappage value, plus any extra money they want to put towards it.
The rest of the vehicle’s value is effectively a hire-purchase – so they pay off the rest of it as a loan, of a length variable to suit the individual – they have a fixed monthly fee for the vehicle. As they pay towards it, they own more of the vehicle, a bit like how the stepping is meant to work in terms of shared ownership housing. If they want to sell the vehicle, the price that they sell for should be based on the percentage of the vehicle they own. The new owner takes on the monthly payments – the loan follows the vehicle.
Cover photo by Mangopear creative on Unsplash