---
title: "Are Ken Livingston's Travel Taxes Killing London?"
date: 2007-02-12T13:00:02Z
modified: 2007-02-12T13:00:02Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/are-ken-livingstons-travel-taxes-killing-london/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 891
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2007-02-12T13:00:02Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

My landlord is [a tad perturbed](http://www.yellowpark.net/cdalby/blog/default.aspx?id=105&t=Mayor-Ken-you-are-killing-London) about the latest travel stealth tax: it seems now the Blackwall tunnel is becoming part of the 8 pound a day London area congestion charge. My own bugbear? I find it beyond absurd that a city which should be doing all it can to encourage more tourism charges eight dollars for a single, one stop journey on the Tube…. so the notion of an integrated transport policy for London seems a bit broken.

Chris argues:

> This smacks of accountants and apparent public servants saying the “market” can take the price rise. Well “Londernors” are not a “market”. It is a struggle to make ends meet in London on a day-to-day basis. In fact, it is becoming a huge struggle to stay solvent in the UK for a huge amount of people.
> 
> Month on month, the UK is experiencing record numbers of people going bankrupt. There was a 66% rise of people going bankrupt from 2005 to 2006. The country is living on credit just to make ends meet. Month on month, new and “exciting” schemes are being introduced to help us spend our money.
> 
> Taxes are no longer incremented in line with inflation, but doubled. This seems to be a new standard working practice. I was surprised the new double airport tax introduced last week was legally allowed to go ahead.”

I wonder what Mark and Joe over at [ReMove](http://movementbureau.blogs.com/projects/) think? Just what is the balance between the future of mobility and the future of tax? London is certainly a good public experiment in that regard.

Its a tough one. London is becoming richer, but wealth is bifurcating. Chris is right to point out its getting much harder to live here for some, but we live in a society that celebrates upward mobility, but tends to ignore the downward corollary. I live in a ‘rough’ part of town. The value of my house increases, though, as the area gentrifies and locals are priced out. So should I celebrate the rising standard of living, or decry it?

I would be more than happy to tax the shit out of SUVs.

But is Ken killing London or improving it? I would also love to know what [Roo](http://rooreynolds.com/) and [Richard](http://gendal.blogspot.com/) think.

All I know is that every kind of travel has become dramatically more expensive since Ken took over. One of his first actions at Mayor- black cab prices went up. Rail travel is way ahead of inflation. Now private cars have to pay congestion charges across the city. London buses actually went down in price for about eighteen months, before the curve turned dramatically the other way. This all drives me nuts.

It may be that London increasingly offers us, in microcosm, a view of the future of travel.

Travel is too expensive. Perhaps it should be if it keeps us from burning fossil fuels.