Small and medium-sized businesses operating in Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) can apply for grant support to upgrade commercial vehicles that do not meet the city’s emissions standards.
Birmingham introduced its CAZ on 1 June 2021 to meet government air quality requirements. The zone covers roads within the A4540 Middleway ring road, although the Middleway itself is not included.
Vehicles that do not meet nationally set emissions standards are charged to enter the zone. For heavy-duty vehicles, including vehicles in the N2, N3 and M3 classifications, and light goods vehicles in the N1 classification, the minimum standard required for CAZ compliance is Euro VI for diesel engines and Euro IV for petrol engines.
To support small and medium-sized enterprises with heavy-duty vehicles, coaches and light goods vehicles, Birmingham has secured a £10.05m commercial vehicle grant scheme.
Eligible businesses must be based within the CAZ, wider Birmingham or the West Midlands area and must be able to evidence that they conduct commercial operations within the zone.
The total grant package available to each applicant is up to £180,000.
For heavy-duty vehicles, classified as N2, N3 or M3, grants are available up to a maximum of £15,000 per vehicle toward purchase, lease or retrofit solutions.
For light goods vehicles, classified as N1, grants are available for up to 35% of the cost of the upgrade, up to a maximum of £4,000 per vehicle, towards purchase, lease or retrofit solutions.
The commercial vehicle grant is being administered in accordance with the subsidy control regime.
Birmingham City Council is also operating a CAZ Vehicle Scrappage Scheme, offering grant packages worth up to £4,000 in exchange for scrapping vehicles that do not meet Birmingham’s CAZ emissions standards.
The scrappage scheme, backed by £4m of existing UK government funding provided when Birmingham’s CAZ plans were approved in 2019, was previously only open to people working within the CAZ boundary. It has since been expanded to include people living within the zone.
The scheme has been designed to support low-income workers and residents in the zone with a financial incentive to scrap non-compliant vehicles or adopt more sustainable modes of travel.
The support comes as commercial fleets, logistics operators and businesses delivering into UK cities continue to face pressure around clean air compliance, vehicle replacement costs, fleet transition and the cost of operating in regulated urban environments.
Clean air zones (CAZs), scrappage schemes and vehicle upgrade grants are becoming an increasingly important part of the wider debate around urban logistics, as businesses seek to balance emissions compliance with the operational demands of serving city centres.
Birmingham’s CAZ commercial vehicle grant underlines one of the biggest questions facing urban logistics: who pays for cleaner city freight?
For logistics operators, service fleets, retailers and urban delivery businesses, clean-air compliance is already shaping fleet replacement, routing, operating costs and investment decisions.
This is exactly the kind of challenge Urban Logistics has been created to examine. Taking place at Excel London on 9-10 June 2027, Urban Logistics will bring together logistics operators, fleets, technology providers, charging companies, retailers, public-sector stakeholders and infrastructure partners to explore how goods move through cleaner, more regulated and more complex cities.
Issues including CAZs, fleet transition, electric vehicle charging, vehicle compliance, routing, kerbside access and emissions regulation will be explored in the Urban Fleet & Infrastructure Theatre, one of three dedicated conference theatres at the event.
Contact urbanlogistics@akabomedia.co.uk for more information.
