We Should Support the London Congestion Charge

by Simon Robinson, 15 Nov 2025

I have to say I’m disappointed by Hina Bokhari and the LibDem’s statement condemning the increase in the London Congestion Charge.

According to this press release (Link)

“London Liberal Democrats have today reacted angrily to plans announced by TfL to increase London's Congestion Charge, describing the news as “a hammer blow to already hard-pressed Londoners” and a “total betrayal” of those who did the right thing and invested in going green.”

This is an area with exceptionally dense public transport provision: There is practically nowhere in the congestion charge zone that is more than 5-10 minutes’ walk from a tube station that sees trains every few minutes during the day, and also from bus stops with frequent bus services. For most journeys in the area, driving is unnecessary. Yet despite that, central London is choking under too much traffic – with buses regularly held up in traffic jams and sometimes awful air quality as a direct result of the traffic.

The core purpose of the congestion charge has always been to reduce traffic volumes. From that perspective, increasing the charge is a very rational policy choice. Ending the exemption for electric vehicles also makes a lot of sense: Every additional vehicle contributes to congestion, regardless of whether it is petrol, diesel, or electric. Electric vehicles are better for air quality, but they take up exactly the same road space. Continuing to exempt electric vehicles entirely would have risked undermining the basic congestion-reduction objective of the scheme.

We LibDems pride ourselves on environmental seriousness and evidence-based policy. But where is the concern for the environment in this press release? It looks to me more like a piece of sheer populism that risks betraying our principles. And betraying your principles rarely goes down well with voters. Standing up for our principles would surely involve accepting that the increase in the charge is likely to benefit the vast majority of Londoners. And it’s not exactly a massive increase: The congestion charge has stayed at £15/day for 6 years, during which time cumulative inflation has totalled around 27%, so a 20% increase is actually less than inflation over that period!

The Lib Dem press release does touch on a legitimate concern: People and small businesses who invested in electric vehicles on the assumption that the EV exemption was permanent have seen the goalposts moved by the ending of that exemption. There’s a possible argument there for supporting some transitional arrangements, and I think Hina would have been better to focus on that rather than framing the change as a general “hammer blow to Londoners”.

And to be clear, the increase is not in fact a hammer blow to (most) Londoners. The vast majority of Londoners never or rarely drive into the congestion zone, and will therefore not only not pay any more but will actually benefit from the increase if it reduces traffic levels.

The press release then gets downright bizarre with this quote from Luke Taylor, LibDem MP for Sutton and Cheam:

“It’s regrettable that the Mayor’s failure to get more funding for London means costs like this are now falling on the shoulders of working people in London, especially those in outer London where public transport is still too sparse.”

What??? Working people who live in outer London by definition live nowhere near the congestion charge zone, and the vast majority are therefore very unlikely to be significantly impacted by the congestion charge, even if they drive!

Managing congestion in central London is both necessary and desirable. I can imagine trying to make some arguments about fairness, mitigation, and sensible transition (for example for tradespeople who may have to drive in order to transport their tools). But that does not justify blanket populist opposition to something that is actually quite sensible.

We can and should be better than this.