The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the Government have agreed a “short time-limited pause” on the city region’s forthcoming Clean Air Zone to rethink plans.

The Clean Air Zone was due to launch in May 2022 as part of a wider Clean Air Plan

The scheme was meant to go live this spring, after being pushed back from last year due to the pandemic, but Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, had warned last month of concerns over the impact to residents.

A joint statement has now gone out from Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at DEFRA, Andy Burnham and Cllr Andrew Western, GMCA portfolio lead for clean air, saying they have “agreed to a short time-limited pause”.

Their work will now deliver a clean air plan by the middle of the year that’s “fair to the businesses and residents of the city region”. This will meet the Greater Manchester and Government requirements on clean air, as soon as possible, and no later than 2026.

They added: “We will deliver improved air quality as soon as possible, not losing ambition but ensuring we take into account the pandemic, global supply chain challenges, improvements already baked into retrofits and the scope as previously laid out.”

The ‘Class C’ scheme approved by Greater Manchester last year had encompassed buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, HGVs, vans and minibuses but not private cars. Covering the whole of Greater Manchester, excluding the strategic Road Network, it was intended to secure compliance with nitrogen dioxide (NO2) legal limits on local roads in the shortest possible time, and by 2024 at the latest.

But while the authority had secured more than £120m in government funding to help businesses upgrade to cleaner, compliant vehicles, it asked the Government last month to pause the next phase of the financial support scheme, citing concerns over global vehicle supply chain issues; the result of the semiconductor shortage and bringing particular issues for van supplies.

It also expressed concerns over the impact of the charges on residents.

Commenting in a tweet, Andy Burnham said the council had “tried in good faith to make the Government’s legal direction work. However, changes in the vehicle market mean it is impossible to proceed on the current basis without causing real hardship to some of our residents”. He added that a rethink would help make the scheme fair for everyone.