ULEZ, CAZ and LEZ explained: which UK zones charge what
Plain-English guide to the UK's clean-air zones: where they are, which vehicles get charged, what 'compliant' actually means, and how to check yours before you buy.
Different names, same goal. Cleaner air for UK cities.
- One standard, three brandsEuro 4 petrol, Euro 6 diesel, everywhere.
- Geography is the variableThe same car costs £0 or £2,000 a year depending on where you drive.
- Verification is freeOne registration lookup on gov.uk settles it.
- Scotland bars, not billsThere is no daily charge to pay; you simply cannot enter.
- It moves resale valueNon-compliant stock trades at a discount in affected regions.
The three zone types in one sentence each
Underneath the branding the standards are nearly identical. What varies is where the zone is, who runs it, and the penalty structure.
ULEZ
Ultra Low Emission Zone
London-specific brand. Petrol cars need Euro 4 (roughly 2006 onwards), diesel cars need Euro 6 (roughly 2016 onwards).
£12.50 per day
CAZ
Clean Air Zone
England-wide framework that individual councils opt into. Same Euro 4/6 thresholds for cars; charges differ by city and vehicle type.
Charges vary by city
LEZ
Low Emission Zone
Scotland's equivalent, run by Scottish councils. Same Euro standards, but no daily charge; non-compliant vehicles are not allowed in at all.
£60 penalty
The compliance standards are the same everywhere
Local councils cannot set their own thresholds. These apply in every zone.
Petrol
Euro 4 or newer: most cars first registered from January 2006.
Diesel
Euro 6 or newer: most cars from September 2015, vans from September 2016.
Motorbikes
Euro 3 or newer: most bikes from January 2007.
Electric
Always compliant. Zero tailpipe emissions.
Hybrids
Follow the same petrol or diesel standard their combustion engine meets.
The compliance standard is identical across ULEZ, CAZ and LEZ. Only the charge and the coverage area differ.
ULEZ: London
The Ultra Low Emission Zone has covered Greater London since August 2023, replacing the smaller central zone that ran from 2019. It operates 24/7, 365 days a year.
Boundary
Roughly anywhere inside the M25, but not the M25 itself. Most of Greater London is in. Outer commuter towns (St Albans, Watford, Sevenoaks) are not.
Charge
- £12.50/day for non-compliant cars, vans up to 3.5 tonnes and motorbikes.
- £100/day for trucks, coaches and HGVs.
Enforcement
ANPR cameras across the zone. You do not stop to pay; the system reads the plate and bills the registered keeper. Non-payment is a £180 fine, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days.
ULEZ is not the Congestion Charge
The Congestion Charge is a separate £15/day fee that applies only to central London (zones 1–2), Monday to Friday 07:00–18:00 and weekends 12:00–18:00. A 2014 diesel car driving through central London on a Tuesday morning pays both.
£12.50 ULEZ+£15 Congestion Charge=£27.50 for the day
CAZ: Birmingham, Bristol, Bath and more
An England-wide framework that individual councils opt into. Each zone has a class, A to D, that defines which vehicles get charged.
- A
Buses, coaches, taxis and private hire only. Almost no consumer cars affected.
- B
Class A plus HGVs.
- C
Class B plus vans and minibuses.
- D
Class C plus cars. The strictest.
| City | Class | Scope | Cars | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham | D | Inside the A4540 Middleway | £8/day | £50 HGVs |
| Bristol | D | Small central zone | £9/day | £100 HGVs and buses |
| Bath | C | Vans, taxis and HGVs | Not charged | n/a |
| Sheffield | C | Vans, taxis, HGVs and buses | Not charged | n/a |
| Newcastle / Gateshead | C | Mostly commercial vehicles | Not charged | n/a |
| Bradford | C | Vans, taxis, HGVs and buses | Not charged | n/a |
| Tyneside | C | Vans, taxis, HGVs and buses | Not charged | n/a |
| Portsmouth | B | Mostly HGVs and buses | Not charged | n/a |
The list grows and schemes change. Manchester paused its CAZ in 2022 after public objection, though the compliance thresholds still influence resale value in the region. Check the council's own website for the city you are buying near.
LEZ: Scotland
Scotland runs Low Emission Zones on a different enforcement model: non-compliant vehicles are not allowed in at all.
- GlasgowLive for cars since June 2024
- EdinburghLive since June 2024
- AberdeenJune 2024
- DundeeMay 2024
The penalty escalates
£60 for a first offence, doubling for each repeat within 90 days, up to £480 for cars and motorbikes, and higher for vans and trucks. There is no daily charge you can pay instead.
A separate London LEZ: the confusing bit
London also has a Low Emission Zone that pre-dates ULEZ and still runs alongside it. It applies only to heavy commercial vehicles: HGVs, buses, coaches, lorries and vans over 3.5 tonnes. Cars are not affected.
- A 2014 diesel carentering Greater London pays £12.50 under ULEZ.
- A 2014 7.5-tonne truckpays up to £300/day under the LEZ, separate from the £100/day truck ULEZ rate, depending on engine and emission class.
For cars, vans and motorbikes the London LEZ is irrelevant. It only matters above 3.5 tonnes.
What "ULEZ compliant" actually means on a listing
When a listing says “ULEZ compliant”, the seller is asserting the car meets Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel. They are usually right, but verify, especially on diesels from the boundary years.
The verification step is free. Put the registration into the official government checker. It reads the V5C-recorded emission class and tells you whether the car would be charged in any active zone.
Check on gov.ukWorth doing, because:
Early Euro 5 diesels
Some 2009–2012 diesels had the DPF removed by a previous owner. The V5C still reads Euro 5, but the car may fail an actual emission test.
Imports
Non-UK emission classes are often recorded by the DVLA as “unknown”. They are charged on entry until the keeper provides documentation.
Modified vehicles
Chipped engines and deleted EGR can lose compliance certification. Visible mods are a future MOT problem and a current zone problem.
What a non-compliant car actually costs per year
The same vehicle has wildly different annual costs depending on where you drive. Always run the worst case for your own routes.
Commuting into inner Birmingham, five days a week
£8 × 5 × 50 weeks
£2,000 / year
Surrey, driving into Greater London once a week
£12.50 × 52
£650 / year
North Manchester, never entering a zone
Manchester's CAZ is paused, and you are outside it
£0 / year
Delivery driver in Edinburgh, non-compliant van
Barred entry, plus £60 per breach
Unusable for the work
What it does to resale value
Non-compliant vehicles trade at a discount in affected regions and are flat in the unaffected ones.
A 2013 diesel hatchback in Cornwall
Minimal discount: no nearby clean-air zone.
The same car in Birmingham
Typically 15–25% cheaper than a compliant 2016 equivalent.
Pre-Euro-6 diesel vans in London
Sometimes 30–40% off; the working life inside the zone is essentially over for a tradesperson.
This is why the seller's location matters when you shop nationally. A non-compliant car priced for the Cornwall market and bought for use in London is a genuine bargain. The reverse is overpaying.
Quick decision rules
Five steps, in order, when you are weighing up a specific vehicle.
- 1Note the fuel type and year. Petrol pre-2006 or diesel pre-2016 needs checking carefully.
- 2Look up the registration on gov.uk to confirm the V5C-recorded emission class.
- 3Match it against your actual usage. Do you ever drive into a zone, and how often?
- 4Calculate the annual cost: the daily charge multiplied by your annual zone-entry days.
- 5Compare that against the discount. If the yearly cost wipes out the saving in 18 months, walk away.
If a non-compliant vehicle is £2,000 cheaper and your zone cost is £200 a year, the maths may still favour it for the time you will own it. Run the number, don't assume it.
Buy with confidence. Avoid daily charges.
Every listing carries a ULEZ-compliance flag and, where the source exposes it, a Euro emissions standard shown next to the year and fuel type. The running-cost calculator adds an estimated annual ULEZ or CAZ charge to the 3- and 5-year totals once you have told us your usual driving area, and the score model penalises non-compliant diesels more heavily where there is an active zone near your home postcode.
- Filter the shortlist to ULEZ-compliant vehicles only
- Zone charges folded into 3- and 5-year running costs
- Non-compliant diesels scored down in affected regions
- Compare identical cars from different regions
