Clean Air Zones

What are Clean Air Zones?  

A Clean Air Zone is an area where targeted action is taking place to improve air quality. Local governments will be using resources and putting in significant effort to improve the environment and deliver improved health benefits.  

Please note, these rules are different to London’s ULEZ. If you will be driving in London’s ultra-low emission zones and would like more information, click here.     

The cities that currently have Clean Air Zones are:   

• Bath (Class C Clean Air Zone).  
• Birmingham (Class D Clean Air Zone).  

More cities will implement Clean Air Zones later in 2021 and 2022.  

There are four classes of Clean Air Zone: 

Class A - Buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles. 

Class B- Buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, heavy goods vehicles. 

Class C- Buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, heavy goods vehicles, vans, minibuses. 

Class D- Buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, heavy goods vehicles, vans, minibuses, cars, the local authority has the option to include motorcycles. 

How does this affect me?  

From now on, depending on the size of your vehicle, you must meet minimum standards to avoid being charged in a Clean Air Zone. HGVs, coaches and buses that do not meet emissions requirements are charged around £100, although this varies between cities. Private hire cars, taxis and regular passenger vehicles that don’t make these minimum standards will pay less but can expect to be charged around £10 a day.   

You can find your vehicle’s emission standard in your vehicle logbook or from your vehicle manufacturer. You can check if you’ll need to pay a charge before driving into a Clean Air Zone. If you’re a business/fleet owner, you can check and pay for multiple vehicles at a time.   

For more information, please read the following websites:  

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/driving-in-a-clean-air-zone#check-and-pay-a-charge 

https://www.gov.uk/clean-air-zones