Small firms wanting to make their vehicles more environmentally friendly should receive financial support, according to the lobby group the Forum of Private Business.
The call follows London Mayor Ken Livingstone‘s plan to charge vehicles that do not comply with new limits in a ’low emission zone‘ in London, due to come into force in 2008.
Heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), buses and coaches with diesel engines that do comply with the new rules will be charged £200 a day and vans or minibuses will have to pay £100, prompting fears that small firms could be left with costly bills to upgrade their current vehicles and that the scheme could render new vehicles virtually worthless.
One company that is concerned about the effect the new regulations could have on its income is London-based Discount Builders Supplies, which operates a fleet of three seven-and-a-half-tonne HGVs. “Overnight the Mayor has raised the standards for vehicle emissions,” claimed the firm‘s director Malcolm Donnellan.
“This will have a huge impact on my business. We may be able to cope with the extra cost, but others won‘t,” he added. “How can it be fair that vehicles such as mine can be run across the country but not in London?”
The FPB‘s head of member services Philip Moody says there are serious concerns among companies that send larger vehicles into the capital. “For some companies using HGVs this will mean a cost of around £5,000 to upgrade their vehicles using the companies that have been approved by Transport for London (TfL). That is quite a cost and even more when spread over a fleet.”
But TfL, which is responsible for running the scheme, insists there will be no financial help available to companies as it claims this is an issue for national rather than London government.
“TfL will no doubt be happy to collect the charges incurred by companies even if it is not prepared to support them in meeting the new emissions levels,” said Victoria Carson, campaigns manager at the FPB. “More must be done to encourage companies to take up these improvements rather than just hitting them in the pocket at every opportunity.”
Companies that upgrade their vehicles to reduce emissions will qualify for a reduction in vehicle excise duty ranging for £5 for smaller vehicles to £500 for larger ones. “That is not an incentive for companies to spend thousands of pounds trying to meet the new emission levels,” added Moody.
