Victoria and Orlando Hamilton live and work in west London. They started their
florist shop in north Kensington four years ago and have turned what was a
boarded-up launderette into a flourishing business.
It’s been touch and go financially at times, and things are about to get much
tougher, not just for the Hamiltons but for 19,000 drivers who live in the
capital.
Under plans drawn up by Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, and the Greater
London Authority (GLA), the Hamiltons will be taxed an extra £10,000 a year
because of the cars they drive. They don’t own a Hummer or even a stretch
limo but a Jeep Cherokee and a small Iveco van.
The congestion charge will rise to £25 a day for drivers of vehicles in road
tax band G (with CO2 emissions in excess of 225g/km) and the 90% discount
for those who live in the zone will be scrapped for those with band G cars.
The charge for other drivers will remain £8. The changes mean the Hamiltons
will pay £50 a day for their two vehicles, rather than the £8.80 they pay at
present.
“You can’t transport all the flowers we do on a convoy of rickshaws,” says
Orlando. “We’ve already had to move our business once because the congestion
charge was threatening our original shop near Oxford Street, then Ken went
and extended the zone. If he goes ahead with these proposals, we will have
to look very carefully at our margins and our bottom lines.
“Some of the small traders, the little greengrocers and artisans in areas like
Portobello Road, will be nudged into insolvency.”
When Livingstone introduced the charge in 2003, it was billed as a
congestion-busting measure. But five years on, and despite a price rise from
£5 to £8 and a western zone extension to include Kensington and Chelsea, the
plan has failed. Last year, more than half of the money paid in congestion
charges went into the mechanics and bureaucracy of running the scheme.
Traffic speeds in the capital are back to pre-2003 levels, based on Transport
for London (TfL) figures, and Livingstone is accused of trying to rescue his
experiment by shifting its focus from congestion to carbon emissions. Yet
despite the scheme’s shortcomings, the government is encouraging other
cities to follow: Durham is looking to extend its congestion charge zone,
and charges have been mooted in Manchester, Cambridge, Norwich, Bristol,
Nottingham, Leicester and Derby.
Livingstone included one possible carrot in his proposals, announced in August
last year. Cars in road tax bands A and B – those with emissions up to
120g/km – would be exempt. Currently only cars that run on alternative fuels
(some LPG-adapted vehicles, for example), electric cars and hybrids qualify
for an exemption.
However, the mayor is now reported to have cooled on this idea because of
fears of escalating congestion as people supplemented larger family cars
with a smaller vehicle for central-London driving. The proposal for a £25
charge is still on the table. If it goes ahead, TfL could enjoy a £36m
revenue boost, according to its own calculations.
TfL claims that making changes to the scheme will encourage “people to take
into account the impact of their choice of car on climate change”. But
motoring groups argue that punishing a relatively small number of drivers in
central London will have little impact on a global problem.
“The problem with penalising drivers in London is that cars inside the M25
already do on average only about two-thirds the mileage of cars outside the
capital,” said Luke Bosdet, a spokesman for the AA. “Many band-G cars in
London produce fewer emissions than a Ford Fiesta in Basingstoke.”
Bosdet said the £25 charge would affect mainly those with larger, older cars
and those with big families. “Some of these families may be asking what they
are supposed to do. Drive around in a convoy of smaller vehicles?”
The mayor’s proposals have been through consultation. TfL is preparing a final
report, and Livingstone is expected to show his cards by mid-February,
according to a spokesman. The mayor’s office was unable to confirm last week
when any changes might be implemented, although previous reports have
suggested the £25 charge would be introduced in October.
Though he would no doubt deny the allegation, with a mayoral election looming
in May, Livingstone could, understandably, be dragging his feet. Boris
Johnson, his Conservative-party rival, has been quick to condemn the
congestion charge, suggesting a possible review of the west London zone
extension, while stopping short of promising to scrap the scheme entirely.
The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea is understood to be considering
court action to stop the new charge. Daniel Moylan, deputy leader of the
council, confirmed that the council was taking legal advice. “We’re
interested in seeing fair play for our residents,” he says. “Ken Livingstone
seems to have dreamt this up as a cheapo political bash at Chelsea tractors.”
While wealthy Chelsea-tractor drivers might be able to afford the new charge,
there are many less well-off residents who need their cars for work or
family reasons. Nearly three-quarters of small businesses in London oppose
plans to raise the charge, according to a survey by the Federation of Small
Businesses.
The Food Chain is a charity whose volunteers use their own cars to deliver
cooked meals and essential groceries to the homes of people with HIV or
Aids. Alan Mather, a trustee of the charity, says they have about 80 drivers
with cars big enough to fit a hot and cold food box in the back.
“With the introduction of the congestion charge and the reduction of people
with cars, it has made it more difficult to find drivers,” Mather says.
Tony Holt, a Kensington resident and Conservative borough councillor, says the
new charge will hurt his area’s poorest residents, such as those living in
council housing in the southwest corner and the north of the borough, and
those with children or elderly relatives who need a car to get to the doctor
or the shops. “Ken Livingstone thinks, wrongly, that everyone who lives in
Kensington and Chelsea is a fat cat,” says Holt, who says he will be forced
to sell his Volvo V70 estate, which emits 234g/km, if the mayor goes ahead
with his plans.
This will be music to the ears of Livingstone, who wants to force people out
of their cars. Yet if the mayor thinks the only people he is alienating are
a small clique of wealthy socialites and financiers in Belgravia, he may be
underestimating the backlash among the people he depends upon for votes.
£6,000 bill
Transport for London, the mayor’s transport body, wants to link the congestion
charge to emissions and make drivers of cars in road tax band G –CO2 those
with emissions of more than 225g/km – pay £25 a day to enter central London.
The higher rate will also apply to pre2001 cars with an engine bigger than 3
litres.
Residents of the charge zone, who now pay only 10% of the daily charge, will
lose their discount if they drive a band G car, under the plans, and will
face the same bill as nonresidents – about £6,000 a year (if they use their
car each working day). The higher charge will hit many types of family car
and people carrier, including some versions of the Renault Grand Espace,
Audi A6, Volvo V70, VW Passat, Mercedes E-class and Ford Galaxy.
Ken Livingstone is reported to have decided to scrap plans to make cars with
C02 emissions of up to 120g/km (road tax bands A and B) exempt from the
charge because of the predicted impact on congestion. The proposed changes
were announced in August subject to a public consultation period that ended
in October. A final decision is due by mid-February, according to the
mayor’s office.
Taking a stand
Tom Conti, the 66-year-old veteran of stage and screen, will be hit by a
double whammy if the £25 congestion charge is introduced. He regularly
drives a Mercedes 500 SEC and a 25-year-old Bentley in the capital – both of
which, he says, will be hit by the proposed charge hike.
“Like so many ideas of Mr Livingstone, much like his bendy buses, for example,
this £25 charge is preposterous,” says Conti. “It is bullying and robbing
people. It is being linked to pollution because the congestion charge isn’t
working any more. Ken has to find something else.
“If he got London running properly, that might be okay. But with all the
traffic-calming measures that have sprung up – traffic lights, bus lanes –
there are constant queues of stationary cars, which is the worst thing
possible for pollution. People shouldn’t stand for it but sadly they
probably will because they just feel powerless to change anything.”
Conti has been one of the congestion charge’s most outspoken opponents since
2005, when he was forced to pay £1,000 to bailiffs dispatched by Transport
for London to seize his car. The incident followed months of wrangling with
the London authority.
Conti had tried to pay the charge – then £5 – the day after he had driven
through the zone but was told that under the rules (which have since
changed), if the charge was not paid before midnight on the day it was
incurred, drivers had to pay a £100 fine (reduced to £50 for prompt
payment).
Several months and many angry exchanges later, the fine had built up and Conti
had to choose between paying £1,000 or having his car towed away. “I drove
another vehicle across the gate so they [the bailiffs] couldn’t get my car
out, but then they threatened to call the police and have me arrested,” he
recalls. “I had appointments that day – I didn’t have time to be arrested –
so I paid up.”
Nigel Havers, 58, star of films including A Passage to India and
Chariots of Fire, was so incensed by the proposed changes that he tried to
get an audience with Ken Livingstone. “Armed with a Biro and paper, I
stormed the ramparts of City Hall, but all I got was one of his underlings.”
Havers lives in the congestion zone and drives a Mercedes CLK 500, with CO2
emissions of 270g/km, which means he will be liable for the full £25 charge.
“It will be a nightmare. I will have to change cars, simple as that,” he
says. , but “I understand the problems of CO2 emissions are not localised,
so it makes no sense if I am unable to drive my Mercedes in Kensington and
Chelsea but I can still drive it in Liverpool or Los Angeles. It seems to me
to be just another revenue-raising exercise.
“I believe that he [Ken Livingstone] is more dangerous to the capital than the
great fire of London. When I met his ‘people’, they said that they saw
themselves as leaders of the world with this emissions charge and that
everyone would follow them.”
Land Rover
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