Clean Air Plan FAQs

The development of the Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan is funded by the Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU), the joint Defra (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs) and DfT (Department for Transport) unit established to deliver national plans to improve air quality and meet legal limits. The costs related to the Plan’s implementation and operation are directly funded or underwritten by JAQU.   

All reasonable costs associated with the development of the investment-led plan, including the requirement to remove signage for the formerly planned Clean Air Zone, are being funded by government.   

Before the investment-led Clean Air Plan was approved, Greater Manchester was under a legal direction from the government to implement a charging Clean Air Zone. GM therefore secured all the necessary governance and approvals to appoint partners to help deliver the original Clean Air Plan proposals in a timely way (to meet air quality limits for nitrogen dioxide on local roads as soon as possible and by 2024 at latest).

Following competitive tenders run by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) on behalf of the 10 local authorities, the following companies were appointed to deliver work for the formerly proposed Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone:

• Egis: Responsible for the installation and maintenance of around 900 automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, and a Clean Air Zone office to handle payments, discounts, exemptions and financial reconciliation along with any penalty charge notices (PCNs) that are issued to non-payers of the charge.

• McCann & Company Limited: Five-and-a-half-year contract to design, manufacture, install, maintain and decommission more than 2,200 signs to support the Clean Air Zone.

• Legal Services Alliance: A collaboration of Squire Patton Boggs and BDP Pitmans advising TfGM on the project.

• Arup: Providing advisory, design, technical and engineering services.

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.

In January 2025 government approved the new investment-led Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan with no Clean Air Zone or charges to drive on local roads.

TfGM, acting on behalf of the ten Greater Manchester local authorities, contracted with McCann & Co Ltd for the installation, maintenance and decommissioning of around 2,200 signs needed across 18 local authorities for a Greater Manchester wide Clean Air Zone. These included the ten Greater Manchester local authorities and the eight neighbouring authorities of Calderdale, Kirklees, Derbyshire, Cheshire East, Warrington, St Helens, Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen.

The value of the contract is £3.04m. Expenditure to the end of November 2025 on this contract was £2.64m.

In February 2022, after the review of the Clean Air Plan was announced, installation of signs on the local road network was paused. A further order was awarded to McCann for £120,000 for 1,309 ‘Under Review’ stickers to cover the planned opening date on installed signs.

McCann was responsible for applying the stickers to the signs in the following local authorities: Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Calderdale, Kirklees, Derbyshire, Cheshire East, Warrington, St Helens, Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen.

The following local authorities applied the stickers to the signs in their own areas at a total cost of £69,300, funded by JAQU: Bolton (£11,500), Bury (£6,900), Salford (£14,200), Stockport (£17,000), Tameside (£3,500), Trafford (£9,300) and Wigan (£6,900).

Since government have agreed that the charging-Clean Air Zone will not go ahead, Greater Manchester’s ten local authorities have now removed the vast majority of signs on the local road network (from July 2025). The total cost for this work was £0.6 million, which consists of £0.4 million for services by J McCann & Co Limited and £0.2 million for local authorities taking down signs in their own districts.

National Highways is responsible for removing the signs on the Strategic Road Network, which includes motorways, and expects to complete this by March 2026. We do not have details of the costs for this work.

Clean Air Zone signs and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras were installed for the formerly planned Clean Air Zone and fully funded by government. As Greater Manchester will not now have a Clean Air Zone:

• The ten Greater Manchester local authorities have now removed the vast majority of signs on the local road network, with funding from the government’s Joint Air Quality Unit.

• National Highways is also removing the signs on the Strategic Road Network, and this is expected to be completed by the end of March 2026.

• It’s proposed that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) will now take ownership of the ANPR cameras to and bring them into their existing ANPR network to help tackle serious crime. This follows overwhelming backing for the move during a six-week consultation, with nearly 90% of respondents in favour.

• GMP will share ANPR camera data with TfGM to support transport planning and to monitor the efficiency of the Clean Air Plan.

TfGM, acting on behalf of the ten Greater Manchester local authorities, contracted with Egis Projects SA to deliver the Clean Air Zone service contract required for a Greater Manchester-wide category C charging Zone.

This included the installation and maintenance of ANPR cameras, a public-facing Clean Air Zone office to handle payments, discounts, exemptions and financial reconciliation along with any Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs).

Following government approval of the investment-led Clean Air Plan (with no Clean Air Zone) in January 2025, TfGM negotiated a significant reduction in the monthly fee and a partial termination of the contract in order to minimise ongoing costs. The net effect of these negotiations was a reduction in the monthly fee of £0.28m.

Implementation expenditure to the end of November 2025 on the contract, including the supply of ANPR cameras, was £13.5m. In addition, the operational expenditure for the Clean Air Zone up to the end of November 2025 was £20.8m.

All reasonable costs associated with the Clean Air Zone, including the installation of ANPR cameras, continue to be funded or underwritten by government.

The current planning assumption is that the contract will naturally expire in July 2026 after the initial 5.5 year term.

Following a public consultation and overwhelming public support for the move, it is proposed that the ANPR cameras are now transferred to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) for law enforcement. The costs associated with the transfer and ongoing operation will be met by GMP.