Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan

Proposal for a new Clean Air Plan

Cleaning up our air

Like many areas across the country, Greater Manchester has high levels of air pollution on some local roads.  

Poor air quality affects everyone’s health. It’s linked to conditions like asthma, heart disease, stroke, some cancers, and early deaths. 

We’re working to make Greater Manchester a cleaner and healthier place to live in, work in and visit. 

  • Through the transformational Bee Network we’re investing in zero-emission bus fleets and can run clean vehicles in areas with poor air quality. 

  • Our investment-led Clean Air Plan will further tackle harmful nitrogen dioxide on local roads.  

Greater Manchester’s Clean Air Plan proposals do NOT include a charging Clean Air Zone.  

Evidence shows that our proposed investment-led approach will improve air quality faster than a charging Clean Air Zone – and without causing hardship to residents or businesses. 

If government approves the investment-led Clean Air Plan, there would be no charge for any vehicles to drive anywhere in Greater Manchester. 

Government will decide on the measures included in Greater Manchester’s new Clean Air Plan.

Read the latest news release on Clean Air Plan progress (13 December 2023).

Why an investment-led Clean Air Plan? 

Greater Manchester is under direction from government to meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide on local roads in the shortest possible time and by 2026 at the latest. 

Government asked us to compare our investment-led Clean Air Plan with a ‘benchmark’ charging Clean Air Zone in the regional centre (Manchester and Salford).  

We’ve done this work, and the results show that: 

  • Our investment-led Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan will meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide on local roads by 2025. 

  • The benchmarked category C charging Clean Air Zone would NOT meet legal limits in 2025 or 2026, failing to meet the government’s compliance date of 2026.  

  • The investment-led plan is more affordable than introducing a regional centre Clean Air Zone.


Next steps 

At a meeting on 20 December 2023, Greater Manchester’s Air Quality Administration Committee agreed the latest Clean Air Plan proposals for submission to the government’s Joint Air Quality Unit. 

Government will then decide what the final Clean Air Plan includes. 

The next steps for the Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan are dependent on feedback from the government. 

The nature and timescales of any further consultation on the Clean Air Plan proposals will be confirmed once we have received full, formal government feedback.

The new Clean Air Plan proposals

The proposed plan would see £86.7m invested in cleaner buses, taxis and measures to manage traffic flows on some roads in Manchester and Salford – using funding already awarded to Greater Manchester by government. 

The evidence suggests that we could meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide in 2025 through:  

  • £51.2m investment in 64 zero-emission electric buses and EV charging infrastructure at bus depots: Local control of bus services through the Bee Network allows us to run zero-emission electric buses in areas where nitrogen dioxide exceeds legal limits. 

  • £30.5m Clean Taxi Fund: To provide financial support to help every eligible hackney carriage and private hire vehicle licensed with a Greater Manchester authority by 20 December 2023 to upgrade to a cleaner vehicle and meet a new minimum emission standard by 31 December 2025. Funding would also be available to help owners of GM-licensed hackneys who meet the minimum emission standard upgrade to a Zero Emission capable vehicle.

  • £5m investment in local traffic measures:  To manage traffic flow on roads in Manchester and Salford. This will bring nitrogen dioxide within legal limits on Regent Road and Quay Street. 

The Clean Air Plan proposals need to be approved by government. Sign up here for updates

Cleaning up our air through vehicle upgrades

Greater Manchester has already started cleaning up its air through targeted investment in cleaner vehicles.

A £120m government Clean Vehicle Fund was made available to Greater Manchester to help owners of high polluting vehicles to move to cleaner vehicles.

£17.6m has already been spent largely on upgrading buses and HGVs, with a small number of LGV, taxi and private hire vehicle upgrades.

Funding that has not yet been committed would be redistributed under Greater Manchester’s investment-led plan. This would include investing in 64 new zero-emission buses and a Clean Taxi Fund.

Funding has already been available for HGVs but will now close to new HGV applicants. Existing applicants that have a funding award will have until 1 January 2025 to spend it. 

Clean Taxi Fund

Greater Manchester is proposing a £30.5m Clean Taxi Fund: 

  • £22.5m to offer grants of between £3,770 and £12,560: Would support upgrades to every non-compliant eligible hackney cab and private hire vehicle licensed with a Greater Manchester authority by 20 December 2023. 

  • £8m for electric hackney upgrades: Providing grants of between £7,530 and £12,560 to support owners of GM-licensed hackney carriages who meet the minimum emission standard upgrade to a zero-emission capable vehicle.

Upgrades would need to meet new minimum emission standards being introduced by Greater Manchester local authorities by 31 December 2025 (date to be reviewed if government does not agree to the Clean Taxi Fund).  

  • Compliant vehicles: Hackney carriages and private hire vehicles with an internal combustion engine would need to be either Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel, or be a fully Zero Emissions Capable electric vehicle. 

Proposed taxi grants are aligned with those offered under the 2021 GM Clean Air Plan with an uplift of 25.6%, reflecting inflation and changes in prices since grants were originally developed. 

Grants would be issued directly to applicants who can prove they meet the relevant criteria, rather than through dealerships. This would give more flexibility over selling and buying a new vehicle.

A Clean Taxi Fund would need to be approved by government. No date for grants opening is available yet. 

Please  sign up below for updates on future funding or contact your local licensing authority for further information.  

Your questions answered 

It is for government to decide the measures that get the green light – Greater Manchester’s preferred investment-led, non-charging plan, or a charging Clean Air Zone.

Modelling shows that only the investment-led, non-charging plan would meet the government direction to meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide by 2026. 

Government asked Greater Manchester to model a hypothetical charging Clean Air Zone in the centre of Manchester and Salford.

Modelling shows that this ‘benchmark’ charging Clean Air Zone would not meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide in 2025 or 2026, failing to meet the government’s compliance date of 2026.

You might have seen signs for a Clean Air Zone on our roads which currently state that the plan is ‘under review’. That’s because the first Clean Air Plan included plans for a Greater Manchester-wide category C charging Clean Air Zone that did not go ahead.  

Greater Manchester is also requesting government to consider agreeing that we can remove the signs installed for the formerly proposed Clean Air Zone. This is dependent on a government decision.    

You can find out more from your local council as licensing authority.  You can also read more FAQs about the proposed Clean Taxi Fund. 

Under our investment led Clean Air Plan, only GM-licensed hackney carriages and private hire vehicles (PHVs) would be eligible for clean vehicle grants.  

There is a limited government funding pot and our plans are to invest it where it will have the greatest impact on bringing nitrogen dioxide levels within legal limits. 

Our modelling shows that targeted investment in zero-emission buses and taxis (hackneys and PHVs) is the most effective way to achieve compliance with legal limits for nitrogen dioxide under an investment-led, non-charging Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan.   

Funding has already been available for HGVs but will now close to new HGV applicants. Existing applicants that have a funding award will have until 1 January 2025 to spend it. 

Greater Manchester has a strong track record of working with partners to secure a sustainable transport system that also tackles the issue of poor air quality. 

Over the past decade, around £200m a year has been invested to improve clean transport and encourage sustainable and active travel, Metrolink expansion and improvements, bus priority, smart ticketing and information systems, and park and ride sites. 

Our work is continuing to clean up Greater Manchester’s air with the introduction of the Bee Network: a ‘London-style’, high volume, low fare, transport system, which is transforming the way people travel across the city region. 

More people are getting on board the Bee Network and travelling sustainably thanks to lower fares, more joined-up services, state-of-the-art electric buses, and a growing active travel network, set to be the largest in the country. 

Bringing buses back under local control through the Bee Network also allows Greater Manchester to run clean buses on routes where they are most needed to improve air quality.  

The 64 electric buses we are seeking government funding for would be in addition to the 85 currently in operation. With 50 more due to come into service in March 2024, they would bring the fleet total to 199 next year. Under current plans, Greater Manchester would have 369 zero-emission buses operating in 2025 and 619 by the end of 2027, supporting the overall ambition for an entirely electric fleet by 2032. 

The original Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan (GM CAP) has already started to clean up Greater Manchester’s air:   

  • Clean Air Financial Support Scheme for HGVs (introduced November 2021): As of the end of November 2023, 205 HGVs have been upgraded.  

  • Clean Bus Fund (introduced in December 2020): As of the end of November 2023, 69 buses have been replaced with compliant vehicles. 956 buses had been retrofitted with clean technology to meet Government Clean Air Zone standards. However, the government is currently conducting a national review of its bus retrofit programme after initial research revealed variable results in reducing emissions. 

  • £3.5m taxi only electric charging vehicle fund: We’ve installed 30 rapid charging points dedicated for private hire and hackney vehicles to encourage the move to EV. A wider project will see 60 taxi charging points installed in total across Greater Manchester, with locations chosen following feedback from the trade.  

What can I do to help reduce air pollution?

Are you contributing to air pollution? There are plenty of ways we can all help reduce air pollution. The single biggest thing we can all do is drive less, where possible.

See our suggestions for more simple changes you can make to reduce and avoid air pollution.

Changes you can make

Sign up for updates

Keep up to date with the latest Clean Air Plan news.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is the Data Controller of personal information provided in this form.

Technical documents, reports and FAQs