Greater Manchester 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 and is linked to many health conditions.
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 already cleaning up our air through investment in cleaner buses and active travel.
The investment-led Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan will further reduce air pollution on local roads through a multi-million pound investment in cleaner buses, taxis and targeted traffic measures.
Government has approved the investment-led Clean Air Plan with NO Clean Air Zone and NO charges to drive on local roads.
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 has approved the investment-led Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan as the best route to cutting this pollution, with:
117 new lower and zero-emission buses and EV infrastructure.
Funding to support moving Greater Manchester’s taxi fleet to cleaner vehicles.
Local measures to manage traffic flows in Manchester and Salford.
The approved Clean Air Plan will allow the city-region to meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide on local roads in the shortest possible time without the need for a Clean Air Zone.
Next steps
Greater Manchester will now:
Start to roll out the cleaner bus measures and look at how best to support local taxi vehicle upgrades.
Continue working with Manchester and Salford City Councils to develop the traffic measure schemes, including any local engagement.
Consider the potential future use of the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) sign infrastructure once the CAZ and ‘Under Review’ stickers are removed.
Explore the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras for law enforcement activity. This change of use is subject to a public consultation, expected to take place in summer 2025
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The Clean Air Plan measures
Greater Manchester has already started cleaning up its air through targeted investment in cleaner vehicles.
More than £19m government funding has been committed to vehicle upgrades, largely for buses and HGVs, with a small number of LGV, taxi and private hire upgrades.
The approved Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan also includes:
£51.1m investment in 40 new zero-emission electric buses, 77 Euro VI buses (clean air compliant), and EV charging infrastructure at bus depots: Local control of bus services through the Bee Network allows us to run zero-emission electric and clean air compliant buses in areas where nitrogen dioxide exceeds legal limits.
£8m taxi funding: To support moving Greater Manchester’s taxi fleet to cleaner vehicles.
£5m investment in local traffic measures: To manage traffic flow on roads in Manchester and Salford and bring nitrogen dioxide within legal limits on Regent Road and Quay Street.
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Upgrading Greater Manchester's taxi fleet
Under the approved Clean Air Plan, £8m taxi funding has been allocated by government to support moving Greater Manchester’s hackney taxi fleet to cleaner vehicles.
That is less than the £30.5m Clean Taxi Fund requested to support the GM-licensed hackney and private hire trade upgrade to cleaner vehicles linked to minimum emission standards.
We recognise that some vehicle owners have delayed vehicle upgrades in expectation of a Clean Taxi Fund, meaning an older GM taxi fleet.
GM leaders are committed to ensuring that GM-licensed vehicle owners have access to financial assistance to upgrade their vehicles. No date for when taxi funds will open is available yet.
Backing our taxis: Local. Licensed. Trusted.
In April 2025, Greater Manchester leaders launched the ‘Backing our taxis: Local. Licensed. Trusted’ campaign calling on government to support the city region’s taxis and tackle the problem of ‘out of area’ licensing.
This includes an independent review to understand drivers’ experiences and see how more drivers can be incentivised to license within Greater Manchester. It is also seeking views on plans for funding to make upgrades more affordable for drivers.
Greater Manchester leaders are also endorsing to extend the emissions standards for taxis and private hire vehicles by at least a year to 31 December 2026 to give drivers time to upgrade.
Find out more at backingourtaxis.com.
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Please check back for more information, sign up below for updates on future funding or contact your local licensing authority for further information.
Your questions answered
The Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan is underpinned by local data, air quality modelling (the process of forecasting, understanding and managing future levels of air pollution).
We’ve worked closely with the government’s Joint Air Quality Unit to help guide us in developing measures that would meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide on local roads by 2026 at the latest. Work to develop the investment-led Clean Air Plan has also been underpinned by targeted engagement and research with key impacted groups.
The evidence clearly demonstrated that only the investment-led Clean Air Plan would meet the government’s legal deadline.
Government approved the investment-led Clean Air Plan on 23 January 2025, meaning that there will be no Clean Air Zone and charge for any vehicles to drive anywhere in Greater Manchester.
Greater Manchester’s original proposed Clean Air Plan included plans for a GM-wide category C charging Clean Air Zone, under legal direction from government.
However, following the COVID-19 pandemic, the original Clean Air Plan was no longer the right solution - posing significant financial threats for local people, businesses and jobs.
It would no longer have met the government’s legal direction (issued before the pandemic) to tackle harmful nitrogen dioxide on local roads by 2024.
Greater Manchester was placed under a new legal direction to meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide on local roads “in the shortest possible time” and by 2026 at the latest.
In developing the new investment-led Clean Air Plan we compared our investment-led proposals against a ‘benchmark’ Clean Air Zone in the regional centre (the centre of Manchester and bordering areas of Salford). Our work showed that:
Only the investment-led, non-charging plan would meet the government direction to meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide by 2026.
The alternative ‘benchmark’ charging Clean Air Zone (in the centre of Manchester and bordering parts of Salford) would not meet legal limits for nitrogen dioxide in 2026, failing to meet the government’s compliance date of 2026.
Clean Air Zone signage and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras were installed for the formerly planned Clean Air Zone and fully funded by government.
Government has confirmed there will be no Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone. GM is now assessing the potential alternative use of the signage infrastructure once the Clean Air Zone and ‘Under Review’ stickers are removed.
ANPR cameras have helped to develop the investment-led Clean Air Plan. The cameras still need to be used to monitor the efficiency of the plan until GM meets legal limits for nitrogen dioxide on local roads.
Greater Manchester Police can currently make formal requests for ANPR data to help them gather evidence for criminal investigations.
Following calls from GM leaders, the government has indicated it would support the use of the cameras for potential law enforcement activity related to the detection of crime.
This change of use is subject to a public consultation, expected to take place in summer 2025.
The investment-led Clean Air Plan includes £5m for local traffic measures to manage traffic flow on roads in Manchester and Salford, including Regent Road and Quay Street.
Schemes have been developed by Manchester and Salford City Councils to address nitrogen dioxide exceedances on these roads, including:
Signal timing adjustments at A57 Regent Road and adjacent parallel routes to improve the flow of traffic, reduce congestion and emissions.
Speed restrictions on A57 Regent Road to improve the flow of traffic, reducing emissions from drivers speeding up and slowing down.
Yellow box enforcement along the A57 Regent Road corridor
Traffic management measures in the St John’s area.
Greater Manchester will continue working with Manchester and Salford City Councils to develop these schemes, including any local engagement.
Work to develop the investment-led Clean Air Plan has already included targeted engagement and research with key impacted groups. This included working with vehicle-owning groups (like the taxi trade) and representatives of other impacted individuals, such as community and equality-based groups.
The requirement for statutory consultation on the previous GM Clean Air Plan was related to the use of Transport Act 2000 powers for road user charging. Should government direct that a Clean Air Zone is required as part of the GM Clean Air Plan, a further consultation would be required on that proposal. However, as the investment-led GM Clean Air Plan does not involve a Clean Air Zone, it does not require statutory consultation.
We will of course continue to work with the taxi trade as we consider how the allocated taxi funding will be best used to support vehicle upgrades to a cleaner taxi fleet. We will also engage in line with good local authority practice to inform the ongoing equality impact analysis.
The latest air quality monitoring data for 2023 shows that air pollution had fallen compared to 2022 and is significantly lower than levels recorded pre-pandemic in 2019.
Five years ago, air quality monitoring data showed 129 locations of nitrogen dioxide exceedance. This has now fallen to 64 sites across the city region.
This gradual improvement in air quality is in part driven by investment in the Bee Network, as well as people upgrading to cleaner vehicles, and through existing Clean Air Plan investments in cleaner vehicles.
You can see all Greater Manchester’s air quality monitoring data on the Clean Air GM Data Hub.
Greater Manchester is rolling out the Bee Network: a joined up travel network with low fares, safe and reliable services, state of the art electric buses, and a growing active travel (cycling and walking) network, set to be the largest in the country.
It’s already transforming the way people travel, with more and more people getting on board and travelling sustainably.
Before Bee Network bus services were introduced less than 1% of buses were electric. The number of electric buses in the fleet continues to grow rapidly, rising to 25% by the end of 2025.
Bringing buses back under local control through the Bee Network allows Greater Manchester to run clean and zero-emission buses on routes where they are most needed to improve air quality.
The Clean Air Plan funding will now allow us to roll out 117 new clean and zero-emission vehicles on the Bee Network.
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
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