Britain cars, Britain petrol cars ban
A customer drives away in a Mercedes-Benz after refuelling at an independent petrol station, with the slogan 'low fuel prices, always' across the forecourt roof, on an A road near Ely in Cambridgeshire, Britain.REUTERS/Toby Melville

Britain will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel-powered cars from 2040 as part of a plan to get them off the roads altogether 10 years later, environment minister Michael Gove said on Wednesday.

"The Conservatives had a manifesto promise to ensure that by 2050 there would be no diesel or petrol vehicles on our roads. Today we are confirming that that means there should be no new diesel or petrol vehicles by 2040," Gove said in a BBC interview.

Gove also said the government would make 200 million pounds available to local authorities shortly for schemes to restrict diesel vehicles' access to polluted roads.

Gove said he favoured road-by-road restrictions for diesel vehicles rather than outright bans from town centres or costly vehicle scrappage schemes, but did not rule them out entirely if they were local authorities' preferred options.

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