'Embassies owe £36 million in unpaid congestion charges'

Date: 11/2/2010

Transport for London (TfL) is owed a total of £36 million by embassies in unpaid congestion charges in central London, it has been reported.

The cost embassies evading the charge has increased by 40 per cent in the past year, the equivalent of £5 for every Londoner, according to the BBC.
London's congestion charge costs £8 and £120 for unpaid fines.

A total of 74 per cent of all embassies based in the capital now regularly pay the charge, according to TfL.

A TfL spokesman said: "TfL and the UK government are agreed that the congestion charge is a charge for a service and not a tax which means that diplomats are not exempt from payment."

Liberal Democrat assembly member Caroline Pidgeon told the BBC she thought it shameful that embassies do not pay the charge.