Greater Manchester told to pay back £22m after Clean Air Zone scrapped
Greater Manchester has been told it will need to pay back £22m earmarked for the Clean Air Zone now plans have been scrapped.
More than £100m has been spent on the controversial scheme that was set to charge some motorists up to £60 a day for driving on the region's roads. Instead, the project was paused following a huge public backlash in 2022, just a few months before it was supposed to start.
Last month, after years of delays, the government finally made a decision, announcing that no motorists would need to be charged.
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However, the Manchester Evening News can now reveal that £22.5m that had previously been committed to Greater Manchester's Clean Air Plan will now have to be returned to the government.
It comes after local leaders argued that they could reduce pollution down enough without charging motorists, favouring an 'investment-led' approach instead.
The government has now approved Greater Manchester's plans to spend £51m on cleaner buses and a further £5m on 'local traffic management measures' in a bid to bring nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels below legal limits.
A further £8m will be available to help clean up Greater Manchester's taxi fleet with up to £21.9m set aside for administration costs.
However, the government had previously earmarked even more money for Greater Manchester's Clean Air Plan.
In total, Greater Manchester had been allocated £210.9m for its Clean Air Plan of which £104.5m had already been spent by last November with a further £2.6m forecast to be spent by March.
This includes around £375,000 a month which is still being spent on the 462 Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras installed across Greater Manchester.
Setting out their revised plans last year, transport bosses said they needed £123.7m to clean up the air without charging motorists, including £30.5m for the Clean Taxi Fund and up to £37.1m for development, administration, risk and contingency costs.
But the government has only allowed Greater Manchester to 'repurpose' £86m of the previously agreed funding for its new plans.
That means £17.8m of the money earmarked for Greater Manchester is unaccounted for.
The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has told the M.E.N. that the extra £22.5m of funding originally earmarked for the Clean Taxi Fund will now need to be returned to the government.
Defra said that this money will be spent on other schemes to improve air quality with details to be announced 'in due course'.
Asked why Greater Manchester will only get £8m for its Clean Taxi Fund, Defra said that the evidence submitted by local leaders suggested that the city-region's air quality will be legally compliant 'in the shortest possible time' without the full £30.5m for taxis.
However, the government department said that it agreed to contribute £8m to clean hackney cabs in Greater Manchester on the basis that this will 'provide further assurance' that Greater Manchester will achieve air quality compliance in the shortest possible time.
Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) confirmed that any outstanding Clean Air funding will need to be returned to the government with officials now discussing the timings of those arrangements.
Contract negotiations to determine the final costs of running the now cancelled Clean Air Zone can now begin with up to £21.9m to be spent on the outstanding administration costs - £15.2m less than what Greater Manchester said it would need.
Air Quality Minister Emma Hardy said: 'Air pollution is damaging people's health and the environment. Its impacts are felt more by low-income communities, making health and social inequalities worse.
'To improve our health, wellbeing and the environment, we must improve air quality. Local authorities know their communities well and so they need to develop plans that are most effective for their local area, and I am pleased that Greater Manchester has found a clear way to reduce emissions without the need to charge motorists.
'I look forward to working with the teams across Greater Manchester as they put this important plan in place. Government will continue to take the action needed to ensure everyone has safe air to breathe across the nation.'
The latest Clean Air Plan was approved by the government on January 23. Commenting on the costs the following week, a Clean Air GM spokesperson said: 'All Greater Manchester's expenditure associated with the Clean Air Plan is funded by central government and overseen by the Joint Air Quality Unit. A significant amount of funding has already been spent on cleaning up our air through clean vehicle upgrades, with further investment to come in cleaner buses and funding for taxi upgrades as part of our investment-led plan.'
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