Bexley village businesses blame Ulez expansion for falling trade
In February, it was revealed that London's drivers had paid more than £70m in penalty charge notices from Ulez in six years.Ms Melucci, who set up Melucci's in 2005, said: "Customers used to come regularly every single week. "Now they come maybe once a year, once every six months, because coming into Ulez becomes less and less attractive."If you're a customer coming from Dartford in Kent and you have the choice of coming to Bexley and spending £12.50 plus the car parking charges, which is nearly £15, to buy a cup of coffee, or you can go to Bluewater with free car parking and no Ulez, what would you do?"It's a no-brainer."
Nitrogen dioxide levels in outer London fell nearly 5% in the year after expansion, City Hall figures suggest.Jemima Hartshorn from Mums for Lungs, which campaigns for cleaner air, said children are worst affected by toxic air and that diesel vehicles "need to be phased out".She said: "The starting point for pollution in that area of London was so incredibly high that, even with this, we are all still breathing air that is toxic, and that stunts children's lungs, that exacerbates asthma."
Christina Calderato, TfL's director of strategy, said: "The Ulez expanded London-wide to tackle the triple challenges of air pollution, the climate emergency and traffic congestion, bringing cleaner air to five million more Londoners. "Visitor footfall in outer London increased by almost 2% in the year after the London-wide Ulez expansion."The Ulez is not about making money. The expanded Ulez has led to cleaner air while generating ever smaller net revenues, as has been the case with the previous expansion to inner London where people switched to greener vehicles."Any income generated from the Ulez is being reinvested back into the public transport network, including improving bus routes in outer London."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
2 minutes ago
- The Independent
Young graduates most likely to be wrong about student loan repayments
Nearly three in five young graduates wrongly believe they must start repaying their student loans as soon as they get any job, a report has suggested. A study, by the Policy Institute at King's College London (KCL), and the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) think tank, reveals a number of misunderstandings about universities – including tuition fees and student debt. The survey, of more than 2,000 adults in the UK in June, suggests that the public believes around 40% of graduates would not go to university if they could choose again. But the actual proportion who say this is only 8% – as measured in a survey last year, the report said. Many also misunderstand how student debt works, particularly young graduates themselves, it found. More than a third (35%) of the public wrongly think university graduates must start paying back their student loan as soon as they get any paid job, which rises to 58% among graduates aged 18 to 34. The report also suggests that the public underestimates higher education's contribution to the economy. Only 6% correctly ranked the University of Oxford as having the highest revenue out of a list of seven organisations – even though its income was more than £1 billion higher than Greggs (the second on the list). The study also found that 13% of the public believe that remaining in the UK to seek asylum is the most common outcome among overseas students who entered the country three years prior. But only 0.5% of international students do this, the report suggested. Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the policy institute at KCL, said the standout finding for him was the 'overestimation' of the sense of regret about going to university. 'This will be driven by vivid, individual stories of graduate regret and the generally negative background noise about the declining value of a degree,' he said. Prof Duffy: 'It's extremely difficult to first get public attention, and then cut through the noise of individual negative stories that are much more likely to stick in our minds.' Nick Hillman, director of the Hepi, said: 'Universities are bigger in terms of income and employment and more successful in terms of student outcomes than the public often recognise. 'However, it would be absurd to blame the voters for this major misunderstanding. 'Those of us who work in the higher education sector have not done a good enough job of telling people the true role of universities in modern Britain today. 'We should start correcting that record by inviting more people onto more campuses more often.' A spokesperson for Universities UK (UUK) said: 'Universities create new opportunities for millions, underpin the government's industrial strategy and supercharge the whole UK economy. 'They deserve to be celebrated as one of the UK's greatest success stories. In 2021-22, the sector contributed more than £265 billion to the economy. 'However, the results of the survey demonstrate that the sector and the Government must work better together to ensure that the public have the information they need to make informed choices about their future, including how student finance works, so more people see going to university as a realistic option.' A Department for Education spokesperson said: 'This report shows that we have a world class higher education sector that can deliver great outcomes for students, and university remains a fantastic option for people looking to get in-demand skills and get into a rewarding career. 'We have been clear that universities must deliver a high-quality experience and we are determined to support the aspiration of every person who meets the requirements and wants to go to university – regardless of their background. 'We will soon publish our plans for reform as part of the Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy White Paper as we fix the foundations of higher education through our plan for change.'
Reuters
3 minutes ago
- Reuters
UK pay deals hold at 3% as employers eye next budget, Brightmine says
LONDON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Pay settlements by British private-sector employers held at 3% in the three months to July and uncertainty about the economy and possible further tax increases means that cautious approach is likely to continue, wage data firm Brightmine said. The figures represented the eighth monthly Brightmine report in a row to show the median private-sector pay deal was 3%. In the three months to July last year, settlements were 4%. Sheila Attwood, Brightmine's HR insights and data lead, said employers were unlikely to take much comfort from official data last week showing Britain's economy grew by a stronger-than-expected 0.3% in the second quarter. "Many employers are continuing to approach wage decisions with caution, keeping wage rises at 3%, in the face of continued economic uncertainty and the looming autumn budget," she said. Numerous businesses have said they are being squeezed by April's tax increase. Finance minister Rachel Reeves is now back under pressure to plug an expected shortfall in the public finances later this year. The Bank of England is watching pay growth closely as it tries to work out when and whether to cut interest rates again. It reduced borrowing costs earlier this month but suggested it might move more slowly going forward due to inflation pressures. Brightmine used data from 19 pay settlements in the three months to July 31 covering more than 600,000 employees.
The Guardian
3 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Less than Greggs? Public have no idea of value of top universities, study finds
Manchester United and Greggs' famous sausage rolls are no match for the financial firepower of Britain's leading universities, despite many members of the public thinking otherwise, according to research. The study by King's College London's policy institute revealed that many people have a string of misperceptions about the higher education sector, ranging from its size to the lucrative career boost it gives to graduates. KCL's survey of 2,000 people found that many picked Greggs and Manchester United as bigger earners than the likes of the University of Oxford, when the balance sheets show that Oxford takes in over £1bn more than Greggs – despite selling approximately 140m fewer sausage rolls – each year. Asked to rank a list of organisations by annual revenue, Manchester United and Manchester City football clubs were the most popular choices, followed by Greggs and the owners of the Daily Mail, while only 6% correctly identified Oxford as the highest earner on the list. Asked to rank the UK's exports by sector, a third of those surveyed named aircraft manufacturing and telecoms as the highest earners, despite higher education earning billions more from overseas sources. Prof Bobby Duffy, the director of KCL's policy institute, said: 'These surveys of misperceptions are not meant to be general knowledge quizzes – we don't expect the public to have a detailed understanding of the university sector, they have many more directly important things to focus on. 'Instead what they do is send signals about how we really feel about an issue, which will be based on what we hear from the media, social media, politicians and our general conversations with friends and family.' The misperceptions extended into areas such as graduates' attitudes and pay, with more than a quarter of those surveyed convinced that graduates earn the same or even less than those without a degree, when the evidence shows additional lifetime earnings for graduates running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. Duffy said the results showed that the public is being influenced by 'negative rhetoric' about university education and its costs, even if most parents remained positive about their children going into higher education. 'The standout finding for me is the huge overestimation of the sense of regret about going to university among graduates: only 8% of graduates say they wouldn't go if they could choose again, but the average public guess is 40%,' Duffy said. 'This will be driven by vivid, individual stories of graduate regret and the generally negative background noise about the declining value of a degree.' Duffy said the survey also showed that many 'hugely overestimate the proportion of overseas students who claim asylum once they are here, because of the vivid stories of boat crossings that dominate headlines.' One in six surveyed guessed that most international students 'remained in the UK to seek asylum or for other humanitarian reasons' after graduation, when in reality just 0.5% did so. The results 'illustrate the challenge of shifting these misperceptions and getting this more positive message across. It's extremely difficult to first get public attention, and then cut through the noise of individual negative stories that are much more likely to stick in our minds,' Duffy said. However many graduates also struggle to grasp the intricacies of the UK's student loan system. Half of graduates aged 35 and under falsely believed that those who fall behind on their repayments can have their belongings repossessed by the Student Loans Company, compared with just 27% of the general public. University of Oxford's annual revenue in 2022-23 was more than £2.9bn, far above Greggs bakery chain's revenue of £1.8bn. University of Manchester had annual revenues close to the combined incomes of Manchester City and Manchester United football clubs: £1.35bn compared with £718m and £649m respectively. UK higher education employed 550,000 people in 2022-23, more than the Tesco (330,000) and Sainsbury's (148,000) supermarket chains added together. Higher education generated £24bn in export earnings for the UK in 2022-23, far above aircraft manufacturing with £12bn, legal services with £9.5bn and telecoms with £8.8bn. Of the public 68% have a positive attitude towards universities, while 13% have a negative view. Among respondents, 67% agree that 'UK universities are amongst the best in the world' while only 8% disagree. Source: King's College London policy institute
