DEBATE: Should London’s Congestion Charge exemption for private hire vehicles be removed? | City A.M.

Should London’s Congestion Charge exemption for private hire vehicles be removed?

Jack May, a columnist for Progress, says YES.

London’s air is toxic. Just one month into 2018, London breached the year’s legal air pollution limit. Britain is being taken to the European Court of Justice as a result, and could be landed with a multi-million pound fine.

Air pollution kills nearly 9,500 a year in London, deaths from asthma have jumped 25 per cent over the past decade, and the toxic air even increases the likelihood that babies are born underweight or undersize.

We’re in a war of attrition to stop our city killing us, and we’ll need every weapon in our arsenal: public transport, cycling infrastructure, electric cars, walkable neighbourhoods, and pedestrianised streets.

Why should the Congestion Charge – a revenue-raising, driving-discouraging buffer protecting the very heart of our city – exempt those who’d rather glitz around in an UberX or hail a cab than slum it on the bus, try the tube, or battle with a Boris bike? No stone can go unturned in the fight to take back our poison paradise of a city – private hire vehicles must do their bit too.

Read more: London taxi drivers mull £1bn legal action against Uber

Gareth Bacon, Conservative group leader on the London Assembly, says NO.

This policy falls at the first hurdle, as it would barely reduce congestion.

The mayor of London’s own figures show that private hire vehicles in the Congestion Charge zone would fall by only 600 a day, meaning that the overall amount of traffic would be reduced by a meagre one per cent.

Londoners would be forced to pick up the tab for this failed policy, as small operators would need to up their charges by as much as 16 per cent.

So why is Sadiq Khan pursuing this policy? Answer: money.

Thanks in part to his fares freeze, Khan has blown a £1bn black hole in Transport for London’s finances, and is now scrambling around, desperate to find a way to clean up his own mess. By hammering the private hire industry, he has said he could raise up to £30m for the TfL coffers.

Talk of congestion and pollution is just a smokescreen. The mayor needs money, he needs it quickly, and he doesn’t care who he fleeces to get it.

Read more: Congestion charging zone speed to be slashed to 20mph in TfL safety push