It says here:
It is understood that the London mayor, Boris Johnson, has pressed [Lord] Mandelson to adopt a scheme to encourage small businesses ("white van man") to buy small commercial vehicles before the capital's lower emissions zone is extended next year.
The last bit's wrong: as we know, phase three of the LEZ is now not going to start next year. However, the bit about Boris pressing Peter is correct. He's also written and spoken to him. Just can't leave him alone. What's more he did this before his recent decision to postpone broadening the scope of the LEZ. The idea is to come up with a scheme to subsidise small businesses buying new light goods vehicles to replace filthy, dirty old ones. It would have the added virtue of stimulating the automotive industry.
He also met Lord Hunt to discuss air quality issues and, I'm told, "agreed that the GLA and Defra will work jointly on a package of measures, both national and regional, which will address PM10 emissions in London in order to meet EU targets." Could these have been those "more imaginative means" of improving air quality mentioned in that press release?
