SUV drivers should pay more tax, Sadiq Khan told

Telegraph

12 hours ago

Sir Sadiq Khan is under pressure to tackle 'car-spreading' by hitting bigger vehicles in London with even higher taxes and parking fees.
In a motion passed by the London Assembly, the Mayor has been urged to write to the Government to demand higher vehicle excise duty for heavier vehicles and tighter restrictions on car sizes.
Assembly members, 11 of 25 of whom are the Mayor's Labour allies, also urged him to write to councils across the capital to ask them to adopt higher parking fees for bigger cars – a policy some have embraced already.
The motion blamed larger cars for clogging up London's streets, putting pedestrians at greater risk of injury or death and causing road surfaces to wear down more quickly.
Elly Baker, the Labour assembly member who proposed it, said the capital's streets 'weren't designed for larger vehicles like SUVs'.
She said: 'Their greater size, weight, and higher bonnets put vulnerable road users at greater risk, reduce available parking spaces, and cause more wear and tear on our roads.
'It's time we took sensible steps to manage the impact of oversized cars and ensure our streets remain safe and accessible for everyone.'
A spokesman for the Mayor said on Friday: 'The Mayor, Transport for London and borough partners are working to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our roads, by expanding the cycle network, making road crossings and junctions safer, reducing speed limits on our roads, and making larger vehicles like HGVs and buses safer.
'This year the Mayor will be refreshing his Vision Zero Action Plan, to restate his commitment to reducing road danger and responding to new and emerging risks on our roads'.
The assembly's call comes after several English local authorities have proposed higher charges for larger or heavier vehicles, amid complaints they occupy more space, produce higher levels of pollution and take a bigger toll on road surfaces.
Such charges have been proposed in Haringey, Bath, Oxford and Bristol, among other places, with many councillors taking a lead from Paris, where Left-wing French politicians have launched their own crackdown on SUVs.
Sir Sadiq currently lacks the formal powers to introduce such charges himself but has said he is watching developments in the French capital closely.
'SUVs take up more space and we know there's issues around road safety, we know there's issues around carbon emissions and so forth,' he said in February.
'We know some councils in London are taking bold policies in relation to parking fees, in relation to your tickets and so forth. It's really good to work with those councils.'
'Car-spreading'
SUVs have grown in popularity in recent years, with many drivers favouring their higher seating position.
They accounted for a third of all new car registrations in the UK last year, compared with just 12pc a decade earlier.
SUVs are generally taller, wider and heavier than traditional cars, and less fuel-efficient.
The increase in the size of cars has been described as car-spreading.
However, Edmund King, the president of the AA, said it should be 'up to Londoners to choose the type of vehicle that best fulfils their needs'.
He said: 'It is not really the role of the London Assembly to dictate what cars individuals should drive.
'Some larger families may well need bigger vehicles with more passenger seats, whereas a driver conducting most trips alone may well choose a city car.
'London's streets were developed around the horse and cart, so of course our infrastructure needs modernising to keep up with change.'
A recent study found that pedestrians and cyclists are 44pc more likely to die if they are hit by an SUV or similar-sized vehicle rather than a traditional car.
The analysis produced by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Imperial College London stated that the figure rises to 82pc for children.
Meanwhile, research by the campaign group Transport & Environment has previously found the average width of cars in the UK was growing by about half a centimetre per year.
A typical car was 180.3cm wide in 2023, up from 177.8cm just five years earlier.