Reform UK proposes to scrap Clean Air Zone charge

Reform UK wants to scrap Clean Air Zone (CAZ) charges in Bradford arguing the scheme has a negative impact on businesses and traffic.

Stephen Place, the party's group leader on Bradford Council, told BBC Politics North that he would keep the enforcement area and that motorists were "causing chaos" by taking routes through smaller villages.

Conservative councillor Geoff Winnard, and the leader of Your Bradford Independent Group Talat Sajawal both backed the idea.

However, the Green Party group leader Matt Edwards and Labour leader Imran Khan questioned how a non-charging scheme could work in practice.

Bradford Council was ordered to improve the city's air quality by the then-Conservative government in 2018, with the CAZ launched in 2022.

As part of the initiative, commercial vehicles that cause the most pollution are currently charged a daily fee to enter Bradford and parts of Shipley.

Money raised through CAZ charges can only be spent on projects to reduce emissions.

The CAZ has generated an estimated £180m in health benefits since it was introduced, according to a study by The Centre for Health Economics at the University of York.

Critics have said many drivers were confused about whether they had entered the CAZ, while some local businesses reported a loss of trade.

Place said the impact of CAZ charges has had a "detrimental effect" on businesses.

"We can have a Clean Air Zone but you don't have to charge for it," Place said.

"If you order a skip and it comes inside the Clean Air Zone, it's an extra £50 to bring that skip to your house."

He added: "Big HGV wagons are avoiding the council charge area now and driving up through little villages causing chaos and so we've got to change that."

Winnard agreed, saying such issues had been encountered in his Bingley West ward.

He said: "We all want clean air, but we're not convinced that charging older vehicles to come into the city centre is a good idea.

"It's made many of them move out into the rural roads and cause a lot of problems there."

Edwards was sceptical about the Reform proposal, saying a CAZ without a charging element "made no sense".

"The whole purpose is to reduce the number of the most polluting vehicles entering the city centre. Without enforcement it simply will not work," he said.

"Reform should know full well that any major changes would need approval from national government, so this feels like either a cynical attempt to grab headlines or a worrying misunderstanding of how the scheme actually operates."

Bradford's Labour leader, Imran Khan, said scrapping the charge would have a knock-on effect on projects tied to the scheme such as cleaner buses and e-bike schemes.

"Maybe that's the problem when people come into the council and don't quite understand how budgets work," he said.

"Where would the money come from to complete those projects and pay for the staff that would monitor the CAZ?"

Khan added the CAZ was only ever meant to be temporary and would be lifted as soon as legal air quality levels could be maintained.

Sajawal said the CAZ created extra costs for businesses which were passed on to customers and did not tackle the issue of pollution.

"Just because there's a charge there, it doesn't mean that these vehicles are not coming into Bradford," he said.

Sajawal argued that a study was needed to assess the scheme's impact and suggested factories may be a greater contributor to pollution than vehicles.

"A lot of the taxis now are electric vehicles and compliance vehicles in Bradford so that must have a massive impact," he said.

"Even the buses are looking to go electric, so the cars that are constantly on the road in Bradford have taken the steps to have less emissions."

The council's Air Quality Annual Status Report in 2025 said the number of locations breaching legal air-quality limits had fallen from 35 to two.

The report suggested the CAZ had contributed to an uptake of cleaner vehicles, stating Bradford's taxi fleet was now considered one of the cleanest in the country.

Bradford received £39m from government to implement its CAZ, which enabled it to offer grants to upgrade HGVs, taxis and buses to meet emission targets.

The BBC has contacted Place for further detail on how he would propose removing the charge.

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