German and French governments have already required that manufacturers fix vehicles spewing high levels of toxic pollution but UK is ‘doing nothing’

The diesel-fuelled air pollution crisis should be solved by making motor companies recall and upgrade the dirty cars they sold, experts said on Wednesday.

Current UK plans are focused on making diesel drivers pay to enter cities and a possible taxpayer-funded scrappage scheme.

But both the German and French governments have already required that manufacturers including Volkswagen, Opel, Audi, Mercedes and Renault fix over a million diesel vehicles which were spewing far higher levels of toxic pollution on the road than in official tests.

“The polluter should be paying, not the consumer and not the taxpayer. But the UK is doing nothing,” said Greg Archer, at NGO Transport & Environment and a former UK government air pollution expert. “If the car industry was required to recall those vehicles and upgrade the after-treatment system that would make a sizeable difference to the air pollution problems in our cities.”

“We wouldn’t need to pay for a scrappage scheme,” he added. “It is time for the [manufacturers] who caused the problem to pay for the problem.”

This solution is also backed by ClientEarth, the environmental law firm that has twice defeated ministers at the high court over the government’s illegally poor air pollution plans.

“The prime minister must get on the side of ordinary car drivers and stand up to the car industry by committing to a programme of mandatory vehicle recall, compensation, random on-road testing and a clean-car label based on real-world emissions,” said ClientEarth chief executive James Thornton. More than 35,000 VW owners have joined a class action lawsuit for compensation VW, following the lack of government action.

Revealed: nearly all new diesel cars exceed official pollution limits Read more

Air pollution causes 40,000 early deaths a year in the UK and the courts have forced the government to come up with a new plan, which is expected in the next fortnight. The likelihood of charges being levied on diesel drivers entering cities and towns around the country has led to concerns that owners, encouraged by past tax breaks to buy diesel cars, will now be penalised.

Theresa May said on Tuesday: “I’m very conscious of the fact that past governments have encouraged people to buy diesel cars and we need to take that into account when we’re looking at what we do in the future.”

However, the government faces difficult choices. “Toxin charges” on dirty diesels entering cities, such as the £10 fee being levied in central London from October, would be highly effective in cutting pollution but are politically sensitive. A scrappage scheme has significant support but would be expensive for taxpayers and might actually cut very little pollution.

“Scrappage schemes don’t work, because the people that can afford to buy brand new cars are not the ones driving about in [polluting] ones more than 10 years old,” said Archer. “Also, we should not be rewarding the car industry by boosting sales.”

A scrappage scheme, where owners of older, dirtier diesels would get a few thousand pounds to scrap their car and buy a newer, cleaner one, is supported by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, MP’s select committees, environmental groups and some business and motoring organisations.

“Whilst it makes sense to steer car owners away from diesel, it currently seems all about putting cost on them rather than accepting some of the financial burden centrally,” said Steve Nash, CEO of the Institute of the Motor Industry. “A scrappage scheme, or some other form of incentive to soften the cost of change, would be fairer and help to accelerate the process.”

But other motoring organisations are deeply sceptical, noting that a nationwide scrappage scheme would not target the urban areas where air pollution is a problem and that many polluting diesel cars are relatively new, and so very expensive to scrap.

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation said: “Our analysis shows that it is much easier to call for a diesel scrappage scheme than it is to design one that delivers a good air quality outcome for a sensible cost.”

Tamzen Isacsson, at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which represents the UK motor industry said: “While the SMMT supports fleet renewal in principle, any scheme would have to deliver value for money for the public and must therefore be developed carefully.”

The government itself ruled out a diesel scrappage scheme in September, responding to a call from the environment select committee of MPs: “There is no proportionate way to appropriately target such a measure to the areas where it would be most needed and, as such, it would not be an effective use of significant resources.” Government sources suggest a nationwide diesel scrappage scheme could cost billions of pounds.

On Tuesday, the European parliament backed tougher rules for regulating vehicle emissions, including €30,000 per vehicle fines for manufacturers that flout rules. It stopped short of supporting an independent, EU-wide regulator to replace the national ones that failed to prevent the “dieselgate”’ scandal prompted by VW’s cheating of the tests.

But Elżbieta Bieńkowska, the European Union’s industry commissioner, said: “Diesel will not disappear from one day to another. But I am quite sure they will disappear much faster than we can imagine.”

The mayors of Paris, Madrid and Athens have already signalled a future ban on diesel vehicles. In February, the UK’s transport secretary warned that drivers considering buying a diesel vehicle “should take a long, hard think”.