Skip to main content

Foreign embassies 'owe £143m' in London congestion charges

Transport for London figures suggest US and Japanese diplomats owe the most
By Adam Hill May 21, 2024 Read time: 2 mins
Who's not paying? (© Anizza | Dreamstime.com)

Foreign embassies in UK capital London owe a total of £143.5m in unpaid congestion charge fees, according to Transport for London (TfL).

TfL's figures cover a 20-year period from 2003, when the charge was introduced, to the end of 2023.

At the top of the list are US diplomats, who owe £14.6m, TfL says, while the embassy of Japan owes £10m.

The congestion charge (which is separate from London's ultra-low emission zone charge) is a £15 daily fee to drive in the city centre from 7:00-18:00 Monday-Friday and 12:00-18:00 Saturday-Sunday and bank holidays. There is no charge between Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Other embassies which TfL says owe significant money include India (£8.5m), Nigeria (£8.4m) and China (£7.9m).

At the bottom of the list, the Embassy of the Republic of Togo has the smallest outstanding debt - just £40.

TfL takes the situation seriously.

"We and the UK government are clear that the congestion charge is a charge for a service and not a tax," it says in a statement. 

"This means that diplomats are not exempt from paying it. The majority of embassies in London do pay the charge, but there remains a stubborn minority who refuse to do so, despite our representations through diplomatic channels."

"We will continue to pursue all unpaid congestion charge fees and related penalty charge notices and are pushing for the matter to be taken up at the International Court of Justice."

In a statement, the US embassy in London said: “In accordance with international law as reflected in the 1961 Vienna convention on diplomatic relations, our position is that the congestion charge is a tax from which diplomatic missions are exempt."

“Our longstanding position is shared by many other diplomatic missions in London.”

Related Content

  • January 10, 2012
    Robust enforcement strategy needed for free flow toll roads
    Timidity has no place in effective enforcement operations on free-flow toll roads, says the NRA's Cathal Masteron. What's needed is a robust strategy which starts big and reduces in size over time, rather than starts small and gains a reputation for being easy to avoid
  • October 22, 2018
    More congestion pricing on menu for French cities
    French cities could make congestion pricing a key means of managing urban traffic flow, if a new draft law comes into being. Transport minister Elisabeth Borne has announced that legislation will be put before parliament in November, according to a Reuters report. This would allow cities to introduce tolls – similar to the London congestion charge. “Urban tolls will be part of the new mobility law, which will provide tools for local authorities to respond to mobility challenges on their territory,” Borne
  • September 13, 2018
    UK government reveals £400m EV charging network boost
    The UK government is providing £400m to create an electric vehicle (EV) charging point infrastructure, in partnership with the automotive industry. UK prime minister Theresa May says the government will ensure charge points can be easily accessed and available at motorway service stations and other petrol stations. There will also be £1.5bn for the development of ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVS). Speaking at the country’s first Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Summit in Birmingham, May unveiled an ‘am
  • July 23, 2012
    Is road user charging the first stop for congestion management?
    David Hytch, Information Systems Director at the Greater Manchester Public Transport Executive, considers just where congestion pricing schemes should sit in transport planners' hierarchy of options for managing demand. On the face of it, Greater Manchester in England's proposed congestion charging scheme hit just about every sweet spot possible when it came to convincing the general public of the need for and benefits of such a venture. There was the promise from national government of almost £3bn-worth of