Since we submitted our investment-led plan to government in December 2023, we’ve needed to update it.  

The revised plan takes into account a delay to a new all-electric depot at Stockport; and the electrification of Queens Road depot, which is now expected to be completed by the end of 2025. 

The revised plan also includes updates to air quality modelling – the process of forecasting, understanding and managing future levels of air pollution. This includes the latest information on where Bee Network buses are running in the city region, and a correction to modelled emissions of government-funded retrofitted buses. 

As a result we’ve made some changes to our bus investment proposal, but our taxi proposals remain the same. There’s also more detail about local measures to manage traffic flows in Manchester and Salford.

The updated plan would still meet the government’s deadline for meeting legal limits for nitrogen dioxide on local roads. 

It is for government to decide the measures that are included in the final Clean Air Plan.  

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

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

You might have seen signs for a Clean Air Zone on our roads which say ‘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 has asked government if we can remove this signage but we cannot do so without their approval. 

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

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:

• Measures to reduce through traffic at A34 Quay Street area.  

• 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. 

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

Our modelling shows that targeted investment in zero-emission and clean air compliant 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 is now closed to new HGV applicants. Existing applicants that have a funding award will have until 1 January 2025 to spend it. 

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. 

Bringing buses back under local control through the Bee Network allows Greater Manchester to run clean and zero emission buses (ZEBs) on routes where they are most needed to improve air quality.   

Before bus services were franchised as part of the Bee Network, less than 1% of buses were electric. That has risen to more than 10% in areas where buses are under local control – and will rise to more than 15% when all buses are part of the Bee Network in January 2025.

It means that Greater Manchester is on target for a third of its bus fleet to be electric by 2027 and is working towards an ambition to have an all-electric bus fleet by 2030.