Susan Hall’s Adherence to the Disastrous Pathway to Net Zero
How Road-User Charging is Hidden in Plain Sight
The Conservative Mayoral Candidate has published her manifesto. Anybody planning to vote for Susan Hall as an alternative to Sadiq Khan needs to read point five: Under “Promote More Green Choices for Londoners”, she writes of her aim “to provide a realistic pathway to net zero carbon emissions as soon as possible.”
For all the rhetoric about removing the ULEZ extension and getting rid of floating bus stops, it is this part of the manifesto that should be concerning voters. She has questioned Khan’s 2030 target but on GB news supported the central government target of 2050. In the same interview she confirmed her support for the 2035 ban of new sales of petrol and diesel vehicles.
There is no pathway to Net Zero in London, whatever the endpoint, that does not require per-mile charging. The Mayor’s own plan is unapologetic about this. The report commissioned by Element Energy includes the output of a number of scenarios and what measures will be needed to achieve net zero by 2030. In all scenarios, London-wide road user charging is confirmed as a requirement. Only the date changes. Best case, it is rolled out post-2030, worst case as soon as the mid-2020s. In a footnote the report states:
All scenarios would benefit from London-wide road user charging being introduced as early as possible. Given that transport is one of the areas where the Mayor has the strongest powers and the ability to make the quickest, guaranteed progress, road user charging has the potential to be a powerful lever to reduce emissions quickly and effectively. A gradual introduction could help strike an appropriate balance to ensure a fair transition.
In other words, there are only a few levers that a London Mayor can pull so whoever is in office is going to need to pull this one if they are ever going to hit net zero. If Ms Hall plans not to introduce pre-mile charging, she has not said how she would get to net zero without doing so. As is so often the case, whether you vote for Labour or Conservatives, the end destination will be the same – only the speed of the journey differs.
I have no personal animus towards Susan Hall. I have met her and like her enormously as a person. She has a great record in Harrow where I live but I wonder if the commitment to net zero is something she is personally attached to or if it has been imposed upon her by the central party. She’s been attacked in the past for climate change sceptic social media activity. Either way, the fact remains that whether she or Sadiq Khan becomes Mayor after May 2nd, Londoners are on a “pathway” to becoming poorer and having their motoring freedoms severely diminished.
Only Reform UK’s Mayoral Candidate Howard Cox truly understands and stands up for all Londoners that depend on their vehicles. It is time for London to get behind him.