Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing additional financial support to help businesses, organisations and individuals in Greater Manchester to move to cleaner, compliant vehicles under the plans for the introduction of a Greater Manchester Clean Air Zone.

The Government has provided £132 million to Greater Manchester through the Clean Air Fund to support individuals and businesses to upgrade vehicles, together with £36 million for the implementation of measures to improve local air quality including the Clean Air Zone.

The HGV support scheme supported by this funding has recently opened for applications. Schemes for those vehicles that will initially be exempted from the CAZ are due to launch later in the year. Therefore, most of the funding already provided to the relevant local authorities is yet to be allocated.