The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that from Monday 18 May 2020 the London congestion charge will return covering an extended portion of the week (7 days a week from 7am to 10pm), and from 22 June will increase in price to £15.

We believe this to be an abuse of the congestion charge, and an unnecessary restriction on people's freedom to move. The purpose of the charge is to discourage drivers from contributing to congestion during work hours, but the new hours are not typically busy so the changes can only be attributable to revenue raising.

On weekends and in evenings:

Drivers wishing to cross London will now be forced to pay or circumnavigate the zone - increasing traffic at the borders and increasing pollution due to longer and slower journeys. This, at the same time public transport is to be avoided.

Night shift workers who rely on their cars to get to and from work, often starting after 6pm and before 10pm, will now need to pay where they didn't previously need to pay at all. These workers are often in lower paid professions such as cleaning or overnight security: now hit with a £3900 annual loss for working a 5 day week.

City workers wishing to run errands that can't be run during the week will either have to fork out unfairly, or run their errands in the middle of the night.

Minicab drivers will have to fork out up-to an extra £2470 a year, as to avoid fares that don't enter the zone is unreasonable.

At a time when we are being told to avoid public transport, these measures seem counter-intuitive.

The cost of living in London is already very high, and this will only serve to increase the divides between rich and poor.