Bad news those of you who have to grim and bear the horror that is traffic in central London on a weekly basis. The congestion charge will be going up by 15 per cent, Transport for London (TfL) has announced.
Motorists will have to pay £11.50 (up from £10) a day to enter London’s congestion zone as of June 16th, 2014. This is the first price increase since 2011. Those who use the auto pay system and fleets will pay the new total of £10.50 a day.
Transport for London said it had increased the congestion charge to maintain its effectiveness at controlling the significant level of traffic in the city centre. It will, of course, have the added benefit of greatly increasing revenue for the government.
RAC head of external affairs Pete Williams criticised the move. “A 15% increase in the congestion charge will significantly impact London motorists who already pay heavily for using their cars in the capital.
“At the current rate of £10 per vehicle per day the charge already acts as a deterrent to unnecessary journeys and this will be seen as just another way to extract cash from hard-pressed motorists.
“The charge has not increased since 2011 but then it jumped 25% from £8 to £10 which begs the question do motorists not deserve a more measured approach to increases?” he added.
Cars with CO2 emissions below 75g/km are exempt from the congestion charge. That includes hybrid and electric vehicles. Motorists do, however, have to sign up regardless of their vehicle, which includes an annual £10 registration fee.
Transport for London said it has reinvested £1.2 billion in congestion charge revenue into London’s transport infrastructure since it was introduced in 2003.
If the new congestion charge has sent you over the edge, claim back some of the power with our round-up of nine cars that beat it.
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