Capital cost of congestion charge

London Mayor Ken Livingstone is planning to raise the congestion charge from just £8.00 (US$15.70) a day to £25.00 (US$49.17) for some vehicles from October, and remove the exemption for residents, meaning that some local people will see their daily charge rise from just 80p (US$1.57) a day to £25.00 (US$49.17) a day.

The new rules will affect several hundred models and many makes of car - 33,000 cars daily in total. This includes many larger family cars such as larger people carriers.

Porsche believes this will be bad for London and intends to take legal action in the form of a Judicial Review to stop this. This is yet another tax on London and the motorist.

It is a disproportionately large, unfair increase.

• The over 200% increase for non-residents is disproportionately large - it is a huge jump in one go that looks more like a political stunt to raise revenue for an inefficient system than considered action.
• The jump for people who actually live in the congestion zone is even higher. People who currently pay just 80p a day will now have to pay £25.00 (US$49.17) a day - a massive and unexpected increase of over 3000 %.
• This increase will hit a large proportion of families that drive people carriers - the sort of people who use one large car, rather than driving a series of smaller ones.
• It will cost nearly £6,000 (US$11,800) per year for those people, whether resident or not, to drive in London every day. This is a massive additional cost that people would not have known they were going to have to face when they bought their car.
• Motorists in Britain already pay very high levels of fuel tax and road tax. This is yet a further increase, which will squeeze them even further.
  

It won’t benefit the environment.

• Despite Livingstone’s claims, the increased charge won’t make any meaningful difference to the environment. The CO2 saved in a whole year is the equivalent, at most, to just a few hours of emissions from Heathrow Airport.
• It risks just putting more cars on the road as families move from one large car to two or more smaller ones.
• The increased charge will not be dependent on actual usage. A person driving a few hundred yards in one of the affected cars would have to pay £25.00 (US$49.17) a day, whilst someone driving a slightly smaller car all day long would get away with paying just £8.00 (US$15.70), or just 80p (US$1.57) if they are a resident.
  

It sends out the wrong message about London as a place to do business.

• When London is competing to become the world’s leading business centre, it sends out completely the wrong message and will make successful people look at other cities to locate.
• The increase will hit large numbers of ordinary small business people who also use their vehicles for work.
• It comes at a time when people are already concerned about the state of the economy and when business centres should be doing all they can to secure their position.
  

Porsche has written to the Mayor requesting that he review his plans to increase the congestion charge to £25.00 (US$49.17) for some vehicles. If he refuses to think more about the plans, Porsche will formally apply to the UK High Court for a Judicial Review. Porsche is not prepared to sit by and watch a world-class city indiscriminately damaged.

For more details about Porsche’s campaign against the increased congestion charge, click here.

 

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