Clean Air Zone legislation is having an impact on businesses of all sizes. Read on to find out where Clean Air Zones (CAZ) are located, when they are being introduced and how you can protect your business against charges.

The UK government has a long-term strategy to improve air quality across the UK by discouraging the use of older, more polluting vehicles. In addition, its short-term goal is to reduce the number of areas where air pollution breaches legal limits. As a result, central government tasked local authorities with improving air quality in their areas. Five cities were mandated to introduce a Clean Air Zone - Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton. The Government also named 23 other local authorities where it expected pollution levels to soon reach illegal levels.

Many local authorities are conducting feasibility studies and are going through the consultation process. Some had plans to introduce CAZs in 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that some of these plans have been delayed - for example, Newcastle.

In October 2020, a joint review by Leeds City Council and central government concluded that the planned CAZ for the city was no longer required.

Both Nottingham and Leicester have also cancelled their plans to introduce CAZs.

In Derby, the City Council is to deploy traffic management measures rather than a CAZ as its way of dealing with air quality issues.

In Southampton, central government approved the implementation of a Local NO2 Plan instead of the introduction of a charging CAZ.

Bristol’s CAZ has been delayed until summer 2022 in order to allow time for more financial support to be provided to help residents and businesses upgrade their vehicles.

In Oxford, the introduction of a Zero Emissions Zone (ZEZ) covering the city centre was delayed because of COVID-19 and will now be introduced in 2022.

In Scotland, Low Emission Zones (LEZs) in Dundee and Aberdeen are now scheduled to be introduced in May 2022 and Glasgow's Phase 2 LEZ will be enforced as of 1 June 2023.

Edinburgh’s LEZs are due to be introduced in 2022 and enforced in 2024.

For a summary of the changes and links to information about each CAZ, as well as up-to-date information about other government guidance and recent legislation, check out Dawsongroup | truck and trailer and their Legislation page.