Autocar reveals £25 congestion charge to raise £250m

Slapping a £25 congestion charge on big cars will do almost nothing for London’s air pollution or traffic congestion, and is mostly about helping Transport for London’s flawed scheme pay its own way, according to todays findings in Autocar magazine.

Around 40,000 cars in tax band G a year will have to pay the proposed charge, says Autocar, which will pour an estimated £170 million more into TfL’s coffers. That will lift total revenue to around £250 million and generously cover at last the enormous administration costs of the scheme, which amounted to £152 million last year, and are forecast to rise further.

The unfairness of the C-charge, Autocar believes, is that Band G cars make up a tiny proportion of London’s traffic, and contribute a negligible (and declining) amount to its carbon emissions. Persecuting them will make little or no difference to the overall situation, while damaging the domestic customer base of markets British-based car businesses like Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover which boost local jobs and generate big export earnings.

“Ken Livingstone and TfL need to decide, once and for all, what the C-charge¹s true purpose is, beyond persecuting well-heeled, inner-city motorists.” comments says Autocar editor, Chas Hallett. “It¹s good news that drivers of cars with CO2 emissions lower than 120g/km may soon pay nothing, but why do we need a scheme which is so expensive to administer that it has to pick on a minority group which, in the grand scheme of things, does almost no harm to congestion or pollution, and helps preserve British jobs?”