12 schemes in 11 cities. Every figure comes from an official source and is re-checked.
The United Kingdom has 12 driving restrictions that we have checked against an official source, in 11 cities. They are 10 low emission zones, 1 congestion charge and 1 ultra low emission zone.
This page lists no country-wide requirement for the United Kingdom. Anything owed before you reach a city is not covered here, so check the national road authority before you leave.
The sources for this country were read between 2026-08-31 and 2026-09-21, from the authorities' own pages. Each check is repeated on a schedule, and a rule we can no longer confirm comes down instead of staying up.
Published daily charges run from £8.00 (Birmingham, Birmingham Clean Air Zone (Class D)) to £18.00 (London, Congestion Charge).
| Scheme | City | Kind | Daily charge | Fine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath Clean Air Zone (Class C) | Bath | Low emission zone | not in our sources | £120.00 |
| Birmingham Clean Air Zone (Class D) | Birmingham | Low emission zone | £8.00 | £120.00 |
| Bradford Clean Air Zone (Class C+) | Bradford | Low emission zone | not in our sources | £120.00 |
| Bristol Clean Air Zone (Small CAZ D) | Bristol | Low emission zone | £9.00 | not in our sources |
| Dundee Low Emission Zone Scheme | Dundee | Low emission zone | not in our sources | £60.00 |
| Edinburgh Low Emission Zone | Edinburgh | Low emission zone | not in our sources | £60.00 |
| Glasgow's Low Emission Zone | Glasgow | Low emission zone | not in our sources | £60.00 |
| Congestion Charge | London | Congestion charge | £18.00 | not in our sources |
| Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) | London | Ultra low emission zone | £12.50 | not in our sources |
| Tyneside Clean Air Zone (Newcastle and Gateshead, Class C) | Newcastle upon Tyne | Low emission zone | not in our sources | £120.00 |
| Portsmouth Clean Air Zone (Class B) | Portsmouth | Low emission zone | not in our sources | £120.00 |
| Sheffield Clean Air Zone (Class C) | Sheffield | Low emission zone | not in our sources | £120.00 |
Bath has charged higher-emission vehicles to drive in the city centre since 15 March 2021, and it is a Class C zone, which means private cars and motorcycles are not charged at all — whatever they emit. What is charged is £9 a day for a non-compliant taxi, private hire vehicle, minibus, van or light goods vehicle, and £100 a day for a non-compliant bus, coach or lorry.
The council is explicit that this was a deliberate choice: it introduced traffic management at Queen Square as the compromise that let it avoid charging private cars.
Penalty £120.00
Birmingham's Clean Air Zone went live on 1 June 2021 and has charged since 14 June 2021: £8 a day for cars, taxis and vans that do not meet the standards, £50 for coaches, buses and HGVs, anywhere inside the A4540 Middleway ring road — but not on the Middleway itself. You pay the government's central service, not the council.
Nothing will tell you that you owe it: the council states there is no text or email, the onus is on the driver, and if the payment window closes the penalty is £120, reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days.
Charge £8.00 · Penalty £120.00
Bradford's is the largest Clean Air Zone in England — 9.35 square miles by the national register, reaching out of the city centre along the Aire valley to Shipley and Saltaire — and it does not charge cars.
The council calls it a Class C+ zone: passenger cars and motorbikes are not charged even when used for work, while a non-compliant hackney carriage or private hire vehicle pays £7 a day, a non-compliant van, light goods vehicle or minibus £9, and a non-compliant HGV, bus or coach £50. Campervans, motorhomes and car-derived vans are charged like vans, whether the journey is for work or for fun.
Penalty £120.00
Bristol's Clean Air Zone started on Monday 28 November 2022 and charges £9 a day for a private petrol or diesel car that does not meet the standards — the same £9 for taxis and vans under 3.5 tonnes, and £100 for HGVs, buses and coaches. Motorbikes are not charged at all.
The council says more than 88% of vehicles going into Bristol already meet the rules, so the charge is aimed at older vehicles rather than at everyone.
Charge £9.00
Dundee's Low Emission Zone covers the city centre inside the A991 Inner Ring Road and, like every Scottish LEZ, it bans rather than charges: there is no daily fee that lets a non-compliant vehicle in. The scheme was introduced on 30 May 2022 with a two-year grace period, and enforcement by camera began on 30 May 2024. It runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year.
Motorcycles and mopeds are not affected. Dundee is the smallest of Scotland's four zones and the council publishes the whole thing down to the individual street names.
Penalty £60.00
Edinburgh's Low Emission Zone is a ban, not a charge. If your vehicle does not meet the emission standard you are not allowed to drive into the city centre zone at all, and there is no daily fee that buys you in — the council states plainly that there is no method to pay in advance and no mechanism for doing so.
Fines began on 1 June 2024, the zone runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and motorcycles and mopeds are outside it entirely. This is the opposite shape to England's Clean Air Zones a few hundred miles south, where a non-compliant car simply pays a daily charge.
Penalty £60.00
Glasgow runs Scotland's first Low Emission Zone, and like every Scottish LEZ it bans rather than charges: a vehicle below the standard is not allowed in at any price. The zone is the city centre bounded by the M8 to the north and west, the River Clyde to the south and Saltmarket/High Street to the east — about 3.06 km².
Phase 1 covered buses only from 31 December 2018; phase 2 took in all vehicle types and has been enforced by camera since 1 June 2023, with a further year for vehicles registered to a residential address inside the zone, which ended on 1 June 2024. Motorcycles and mopeds are outside the scheme entirely, and a fully electric vehicle complies.
Penalty £60.00
Driving in the Congestion Charge zone costs £18 a day if you pay on the day or in advance, or £21 if you pay by midnight on the third day after travelling. The charge applies 7:00–18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00–18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays, with no charge between Christmas Day and the New Year's Day bank holiday inclusive.
Charge £18.00
A £12.50 daily charge applies for driving in the Ultra Low Emission Zone, which covers all London boroughs (it does not include the M25) and operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day.
Charge £12.50
Newcastle and Gateshead run one Clean Air Zone between them, and it has charged non-compliant taxis, buses, coaches and HGVs since 30 January 2023, with vans and light goods vehicles added on 17 July 2023 after a delay for vehicle supply shortages. Private cars are not charged.
A non-compliant taxi, private hire vehicle, van or light goods vehicle pays £12.50 a day — the highest van rate of any English zone — and a non-compliant bus, coach or HGV pays £50. A taxi or private hire vehicle licensed by Newcastle, Gateshead or North Tyneside can instead buy a £50 permit covering seven consecutive days, which is the only discount of its kind in the corpus.
Penalty £120.00
Portsmouth is the only Class B Clean Air Zone in England, and that one letter is the whole story: a Class B zone reaches buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles and heavy goods vehicles, and stops there. Private cars, motorcycles and vans are not charged — vans are charged in every other English zone and are not charged here.
The zone has run since 29 November 2021 and charges £10 a day for a non-compliant taxi or private hire vehicle and £50 a day for a non-compliant HGV, bus or coach. Some larger motorhomes are classed as HGVs by the DVLA, which is the one way a private journey can end up paying.
Penalty £120.00
Sheffield's Clean Air Zone began charging at midnight on 27 February 2023. It is a Class C zone inside and including the inner ring road and city centre, and private cars and motorbikes are not charged. A non-compliant bus, coach or HGV pays £50 a day; a non-compliant taxi, private hire vehicle, van or light goods vehicle pays £10.
Campervans and motorhomes are charged, though a larger one can apply for the reduced £10 rate, and a taxi or private hire vehicle pays even when the journey is private rather than for work.
Penalty £120.00