London Congestion Charge jumps 15% to £11.50 a day

The cost of driving in London during weekdays will rise on the 16 June by 15 per cent to £11.50, Transport for London has announced.

We all moaned when the London Congestion Charge zone was put in place in 2003 and we had to pay £5 a day to drive in London during the day on weekdays. But it’s gone up a bit since then.

By 2011, it was costing twice as much – £10 a day – for the dubious privilege of driving in London, but having resisted the temptation of putting the price up for the last three years, Transport for London has announced it will be charging 15 per cent more from 7am on 16 June 2014 for your daily commute – that’s a whopping £11.50.

Unsurprisingly, associations representing those who have to use London’s roads for business are up in arms.

Chief Executive of the BVLA, Gerry Keaney, said:

This 15% increase in the daily charge is unjustified and is in effect a tax rise on essential business users who have no choice but to drive in central London.

We are disappointed that Transport for London has ignored our calls to reverse this decision, and will continue to fight this battle on behalf of our members and their customers, who operate the cleanest, safest vehicles on UK roads.

And the lady from the Freight Transport Association, Natalie Chapman, was equally unhappy:

Commercial vehicles making essential deliveries, such as keeping the capital’s shelves stocked and supplying London’s hospitals should be exempt from the Congestion Charge.

But not only are they forced to pay to use the road network in Central London, they have now been unfairly clobbered with a bigger rise than casual users of the scheme.

The bigger rise the FTA are referring to is that the current discount of £1 a day for auto pay and fleet customers isn’t being increased, so they will actually pay 17 per cent more rather than the 15 per cent more casual users will have to stump up.

But really, the battle was lost when the LCC was introduced in 2003, and complaining about rises now is going to have about as much effect as moaning about the price of cigarettes.

Once a government – local or national – has found a cash cow, they’ll milk it for ever more.