Comment: C-charge cash

The analysis we report today of congestion charge revenues, by a respected City economist, suggests that the scheme has raised much less for public transport than promised. Two other assessments reach a similar conclusion.

Though the charge, now £8, and fines of up to £150, have extracted over £1 billion from Londoners over five years, the hefty payments to Capita to manage the scheme and the capital costs mean that the surplus available for improving public transport could be as low as £10 million. Transport for London maintains that the scheme has made a cumulative total of £382 million - but even that falls short of the promised £200 million a year for five years.

At a time when Ken Livingstone's management of spending has become a key issue in his re-election campaign, the gap between the promised £1 billion over five years and the reality is stark. The charge itself has brought considerable benefits, reducing the number of cars entering the central zone by as many as 70,000 a day. Without it, there might have been gridlock by this stage, though traffic speeds now are in many cases as low as they were before the charge came in and the improvement in air quality has been questionable.

If re-elected, Mr Livingstone will impose a £25-aday charge on cars with higher carbon emissions. These include not only 4x4s but also many ordinary family cars such as the Ford Galaxy. This addition represents a mutation of the original scheme, which was sold to the public as a measure to reduce congestion, into a green tax of unproven environmental merit.

Mr Livingstone may hope the new measure will at last boost the revenue from congestion charging to a level where it brings in a surplus closer to what he originally promised. However, it will do so at substantial cost to many families. The charge has been popular with many and has been considered a success but that verdict may need to be modified in the light of its disappointing financial returns.