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.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Fuel levy won’t replace Gauteng e-tolls
    September 23, 2014
    Despite support from the Justice Project South Africa (JPSA) and the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA), Gauteng’s e-tolls will not be replaced with a fuel levy after the country’s other eight provinces overwhelmingly rejected this idea, saying they will not be made to pay for excellent roads when theirs are poorly maintained. The provinces also rejected a proposal that the national government should take over the funding of improvements to Gauteng highways. Instead of the current user-pay p
  • European trends in environmental monitoring and enforcement
    February 2, 2012
    David Crawford surveys European trends in environmental monitoring and enforcement
  • Asecap prepares for ‘interoperability on steroids’
    March 31, 2023
    The gathering of Europe’s toll professionals offers a chance for views to be exchanged by senior people on a number of big issues: and there’s currently an awful lot to think about, reports Geoff Hadwick
  • Slow adoption of European VMS harmonisation
    January 31, 2012
    Alberto Arbaiza, ES4-Mare Nostrum Chair, Directorate General of Traffic, Spain and Antonio Lucas-Alba, ES4 Secretariat, INTRAS, University of Valencia, Spain write about progress towards variable message sign harmonisation in Europe . Particularly in Europe, national road administrations have been faster at generating and adopting new road signs than the standardisation process has been at generating them.