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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has flatly denied the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) scheme is a cash grab exercise.

From today, Ulez has expanded to cover all of Greater London. The scheme, aimed at improving air quality, charges people a daily £12.50 fee for driving vehicles that don’t meet certain emissions standards.

Speaking on Good Morning on Britain, Mr Khan said the expansion was “absolutely not” a fund-raising exercise.

He said he “fully accepts there are those with concerns” but said, “there is no level of air pollution that is safe”.

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00:00 government said to me a couple of years ago that I need to be expanding the congestion
00:05 charge that would have been a cash grab. That would have been to raise money. The U.S. policy
00:12 is a public health policy. And you know what? Experts from Imperial College to King's College,
00:19 the chief medical officer, the World Health Organization all say air pollution is a public
00:25 health crisis. But many experts also agree U.S. is the most effective policy in cleaning
00:31 up air in the world. If clean air is good enough for central London and inner London,
00:36 why not outer London? There is no level of air pollution that is safe. Our predictions
00:40 are the expansion will lead to a reduction of nitrogen dioxide, which is the main pollutant,
00:46 by around 10% from cars, a reduction of around 16% in particular matter. And when I tell
00:53 you that the 30 GP practices in London with the largest number of patients with respiratory
01:00 problems like asthma and the like, 24 of the 30 are in outer London. So we've got to do
01:05 something about that.

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