The total amount of Congestion Charge fees and penalty charge notices owed by embassies and diplomatic missions now stands at more than £60 million.
In January Transport for London figures showed there was £58.1m owed, meaning the debt is growing by almost £1m a month.
Liberal Democrat Leader Caroline Pidgeon says Mayor Boris Johnson has “allowed the unpaid Congestion Charge bill to soar” by not complying with a London Assembly motion calling on him to write to heads of state of non-paying nations and publish their responses online.
Commenting on the escalating bill, Pidgeon said: “Too many overseas embassies are insulting Londoners by evading a charge which everyone else – including the Queen – has to pay if they wish to drive in central London.
“Under Boris Johnson the total amount owed by the embassies and diplomatic missions has tripled and every Londoner is now owed eight pounds.
“Instead of making excuses the Mayor must take real action to tackle this huge loss of revenue and stop this evasion of the Congestion Charge.”
Damian Hockney says
But of course that “action” must include the publishing of full legal advice relating to taxation. Failure by all parties to do this is dishonest to the electorate because it assumes that there is a simple answer. There is not, because the UK government knows (but will not address the fact) that the Congestion Charge is a tax. When the last Mayor increased the price of the Congestion Charge by 60% without any provision of additional services, he effectively confirmed what the USA and EU had been saying: “the Congestion Charge in the way in which you have introduced it is a tax in international law”. I am astonished that no-one will properly query or investigate the several occasions upon which the UK government and the Mayor have been given the advice of others (the EU and Russia in particular) and have been told to get their act together. Instead we have an endless repetition of what amounts to trite political attacks on foreign governments for political gain.
I made the point very clearly several years ago when a member of the London Assembly, before the Mayor increased the price – when you do this you will open the floodgates because you are stating to be true what everyone actually knows. Of course soon after the USA made it clear and the EU (whose member nations constitute the largest single non-payer as we know) held a meeting and stated to all its member nations that the charge was a tax. The UK has not provided the alternative legal advice that the C-Charge is NOT a tax. And Sweden followed the logic of the EU advice and changed the name of its own charge to a “tax”.
Bryan Paul Tomlinson says
What are the benefits of the congestion charge ? Traffic jams are as bad as ever and pollution levels are breaking government guidelines.
Increase the congestion charge to £25 per day and stop pretending it isn’t a tax. There will be more people on buses if they can get around quicker.
How is the lane rental scheme for utility companies digging up the roads coming along ? Sssshhhhhh ! It’s election time.