More than one million Ulez fines have been issued to London residents since the scheme’s expansion across all boroughs in August 2023, new data from Transport for London has revealed.
According to a Freedom of Information request, more than 1.1 million penalty charge notices were sent to registered keepers of non-compliant vehicles across the capital’s 33 boroughs between August 2023 and September 2024 with some seeing more fines than others.
The figures showed that 460,825 unique vehicles received penalties during the first year of the London-wide scheme.
The scheme, spearheaded by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, initially issued warning notices rather than penalties between August 29 and September 25, 2023, to allow for genuine mistakes following the expansion.
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Sadiq Khan has continually praised the Ulez scheme
PA
Full enforcement began on September 26, 2023, with drivers facing fines for failing to pay the daily charge. Enfield recorded the highest number of Ulez fines with 87,232 penalties issued to vehicles registered in the borough.
Croydon had the second-highest total with 62,750 fines, followed by Hillingdon with 59,780. At the other end of the scale, the City of London saw just 545 penalties issued, while Camden and Kensington & Chelsea recorded 7,500 and 7,421 fines respectively.
Outer London boroughs generally saw higher numbers of penalties, with Barking and Dagenham (57,788), Haringey (54,739), and Redbridge (51,341) all recording over 50,000 fines.
Inner London areas typically had lower totals, with Westminster (13,234), Wandsworth (14,604), and Islington (15,679) all falling below 16,000 penalties.
Ulezrevenue has risen significantly since the London-wide expansion, reaching £259.14million in the year to August 2024.
This represents a substantial increase from £190.47million in the previous year and £211.36million in 2021-22, the FOI recorded.
The scheme’s income has grown dramatically since 2020, when it generated £52.83million while covering a smaller area of London. Meanwhile, revenue from the separate Low Emission Zone has declined over the same period. LEZ income fell from £17.54million in 2020-21 to £12.05million in the most recent year.
The combined Ulez and LEZ schemes now generate over £271million annually in charges and penalties across Greater London, the FOI reported.
However, some drivers racked up substantial penalties, with one vehicle receiving 325 Ulez fines in the year following expansion – the highest number for a single vehicle.
The largest outstanding Ulez charges for an individual vehicle reached £90,294 in the period from August 2023 to August 2024. Even higher penalties were recorded under the Low Emission Zone scheme, with one vehicle accumulating £322,318 in outstanding charges during the same period.
In previous years, some vehicles accumulated even larger LEZ debts, with one reaching £626,000 in outstanding penalties during 2022-23.
The number of unique vehicles receiving Ulez penalties increased from 407,181 in 2022-23 to 460,825 in the year following the London-wide expansion.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
The Ulez penalty notices first started being sent out in 2021PAThe Ulez expansion has seen three major phases since its launch in April 2019, when it initially covered only central London’s Congestion Charge zone.
The first significant expansion came on October 25, 2021, when the zone grew to cover all areas up to, but not including the North and South Circular roads. This represented an 18-fold increase in the size of the charging zone.
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