Birmingham Clean Air Zone Goes Live

01 June 2021

On 1 June 2021, Birmingham begins operating its Clean Air Zone (CAZ) (which was originally intended to go live in 2020 but was delayed due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic).

Birmingham City Council has, however, announced on the morning of 1 June 2021 that it will introduce the CAZ through a ‘soft launch’ of the scheme. From 1 June 2021 through to 11:59:59pm on 13 June 2021, vehicles will not be required to pay the daily fee and Birmingham City Council will not pursue enforcement; however, from 14 June 2021, the daily fee will apply.

The CAZ covers all roads within the A4540 Middleway Ring Road (but not the Ring Road itself) and operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The charges will be applied daily (from midnight to midnight). A non-compliant vehicle driving in the CAZ will pay once for the day, then may drive into, around and out of the CAZ during that day without incurring any additional charges.

The Class D Clean Air Zone applies to all vehicles that do not meet the minimum emissions standards of Euro 6 for diesel and Euro 4 for petrol.

The charges for vehicles that do not meet the minimum emission standards are:

Cars, Taxi, Minibuses and LGVs: £8 
Coaches, Buses and HGVs: £50 

A £10.05 million Heavy Duty Vehicle (HDV) Fund has been established to support SMEs (Small to Medium-sized Enterprises).  You can find further information and see if you are eligible for the funding here.  Operators can apply for funding here.

Operators can use the ‘Pay to Drive in a Clean Air Zone’ service (here) to create a company account to upload details of UK registered vehicles and then pay any charges if a non-compliant vehicle enters a CAZ.

For further information contact the Regulatory team at Backhouse Jones by email on Regulatory@backhouses.co.uk or call 01254 828300.