Renting a car in London

Book London car hire

London is the rare city where the case against hiring a car is not a matter of taste. Transport for London, the City of Westminster, the City of London Corporation and the Government all publish the charges, and they add up in public. A day in the centre now costs £18 in Congestion Charge alone before the car has been parked, and the meter in a Westminster bay is priced by the car’s carbon dioxide emissions rather than by a flat rate.

This page is that arithmetic, in the order it hits you: the Congestion Charge, the emissions zones, the two Thames crossings that toll, what the kerb costs, and the penalties — which, thanks to a 2001 statutory instrument, find you at home weeks after the flight back.

Then the honest other side. There are trips out of London where a car is plainly the right answer, and the trick is where you collect it.

The case against a car here is published, not an opinion

TfL puts a number on the thing every visitor discovers by accident: vehicle congestion cost London £3.85 billion in 2024, an average of £942 per driver. That is the cost of the queue, not of the charges. Since the Congestion Charge began in February 2003 TfL records a 30% reduction in congestion inside the zone and a 15% reduction in circulating traffic — which is to say the scheme works, and the traffic you are sitting in is what it looks like after the improvement.

The second structural fact is that there is nowhere in Greater London outside an emissions zone. Since 29 August 2023 the Ultra Low Emission Zone has covered every London borough, a 1,500 square kilometre area that TfL calls the largest of its kind in the world, and its boundary is now the same as the Low Emission Zone boundary. Parking at an outer-suburban hotel does not put you outside the rules; it only puts you outside the Congestion Charge, which is a small central zone.

For almost every itinerary inside the M25 the alternative is better and cheaper: see London trains for the National Rail and Underground picture and London buses for the coach network out of Victoria.

The Congestion Charge, and hours that are not what people assume

The central London Congestion Charge rose to £18 a day on 2 January 2026. It had been £15 since 2020, and the increase was consulted on between 27 May and 11 August 2025.

The hours catch people out because they are asymmetric, and they are set in the Scheme Order rather than in guidance. It is 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday, but only “the hours between 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm on a charging day that is a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday”. Nothing is charged overnight, and nothing before noon at a weekend. A Saturday morning drive into the centre, parked and finished by midday, costs nothing at all.

There is also a genuine free week. The Order defines free days as Christmas Day, the New Year’s Day bank holiday, and “each of the days falling between Christmas Day and the New Year’s Day bank holiday” — so the whole Christmas-to-New-Year period is uncharged.

Paying is a three-window rule. A licence for one charging day can be bought up to 64 working days in advance, on the day itself, or “on or before the third day after the charging day concerned”. That three-day tail is the entire grace period. Miss it and the penalty charge is £180, halved to £90 if paid before the end of the fourteenth day of the 28-day payment period, and raised by half to £270 once a charge certificate is issued.

One change matters specifically to a hire car. The 100% Cleaner Vehicle Discount for electric vehicles ended on 25 December 2025. The replacement is tiered — 50% for electric vans, HGVs and quadricycles, 25% for electric cars — and it is available only to vehicles registered for Auto Pay. A hire car paid for with a one-off walk-up payment gets no discount whatever its badge. Both tiers halve again from 4 March 2030.

ULEZ and the LEZ: the charge that almost certainly does not apply to you

The ULEZ is the charge visitors worry about and the one they are least likely to pay. It is £12.50 a day for a non-compliant vehicle, and unlike the Congestion Charge it runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year except Christmas Day. No evening window, no weekend break.

The standards for cars and light vans are Euro 4 for petrol and Euro 6 for diesel. In practice, TfL says, “all petrol cars registered new from 1 January 2006 and all diesel cars registered new from 1 September 2015 will comply”. No UK rental fleet is running cars that old. By September 2024, one year after the London-wide expansion, 96.7% of all vehicles driving in London complied, rising to 97.4% for cars and private hire vehicles. Treat the ULEZ as a near-certain non-event for a normal hire car, confirm the registration at the counter, and budget instead for the Congestion Charge, which applies regardless of how clean the car is.

The exception is size. The separate Low Emission Zone, launched in 2008 and now sharing the ULEZ boundary, applies to large and heavy diesel vehicles — lorries, buses, minibuses over 5 tonnes gross vehicle weight and vans over 3.5 tonnes — and also operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year. If the plan is a Luton van for a house move or a motorhome, that is a different conversation with the hire desk and it should happen before the booking, not at the barrier.

Tolls: two tunnels under the Thames, and one crossing east of the city

London has almost no tolls, and then it has three, all of which punish a driver without an account.

The Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels carry a user charge approved by the TfL Board in December 2024 and in force since the Silvertown Tunnel opened. Charging hours are 06:00 to 22:00 every day, weekends included, with no charge on Christmas Day. Peak is weekdays only: northbound 06:00–10:00 and southbound 16:00–19:00. For a car or small van the charge is £1.50 off-peak and £4.00 at peak via Auto Pay — but the Board paper is explicit that “customers not registered for Auto Pay will always pay peak charges during charging hours”. A hire car is not on your Auto Pay account, so the honest figure to plan with is £4.00 every crossing, at any hour, unless you register the vehicle yourself.

The Dartford Crossing on the M25 east of London is the one most visitors meet, usually on the way to or from Kent or the Channel ports. Dart Charge for a car is £3.50 as a one-off or pay-as-you-go payment, or £2.80 on a pre-pay account; a two-axle Class C vehicle pays £4.20 or £3.60; motorcycles, mopeds and quad bikes are free. It applies between 6am and 10pm every day, weekends and bank holidays included, and there is no barrier — nothing stops you, and nothing reminds you.

That is the trap. The charge must be paid by midnight the day after you cross, online, by phone or with cash at a Payzone shop. Miss it and the fine is £70, reduced to £35 within 14 days and rising to £105 if it goes unpaid, with 28 days to settle it. Drivers who cross on the last day of a trip and fly home the next morning are the classic case.

Parking, and the penalty that follows you home

Central London kerbside parking is priced by borough, and the two boroughs a visitor is most likely to want are priced on completely different principles.

Westminster charges by the car’s carbon dioxide band. Under its published schedule in force from 13 July 2026, a band 3 car — 91 to 150 g/km, which is the typical petrol hire car — pays £5.35 an hour in zone A and £7.78 an hour in zones F and G, the dearest in the table. A band 5 vehicle, over 256 g/km or unregistered, pays £7.28 and £10.58 respectively. A pre-2015 diesel in bands 2 to 5 carries a further 50% surcharge on top, which is worth asking about if the counter offers you a diesel. Every transaction also carries an operator end-user charge of up to 30p, because payment goes through RingGo, PaybyPhone or JustPark rather than a machine.

The City of London, the Square Mile, charges by vehicle type instead and is strikingly cheap at weekends. Payment bays operate Monday to Friday 8am to 7pm with a four-hour maximum stay. A petrol car registered from 2005 or a diesel from 2015 pays £7.20 an hour; an electric, hydrogen or hybrid car pays £5.00; anything else pays £10.00. But Saturday between 8am and 11am is £2 for any duration, after 11am on Saturday it is free, and Sundays and bank holidays are free all day. The catch is a no-return rule: you are liable if you come back to any bay in the same parking place within an hour of your paid time expiring.

The Corporation also publishes a warning worth repeating verbatim: “The City of London does not use QR codes for parking payments. Any QR codes seen in parking bays are likely a scam. Only use the RingGo app to pay for parking. Using QR codes can result in a penalty charge notice.” A stuck-on code is often better printed than the real signage, which is exactly why it works.

Get it wrong in Westminster and the penalty charge notice is £110 for a lower-charge contravention such as overstaying, or £160 for a higher-charge one such as a yellow line, with a moving-traffic contravention also at £160. All are subject to a 50% discount if paid within 14 days of service. Ignore it and a charge certificate adds half again, to £165 or £240, and registration at the Traffic Enforcement Centre adds a further £11.

None of which the hire company absorbs. Regulation 13 of the 2001 London road user charging enforcement regulations lets a vehicle-hire firm escape liability where the car was out on a hiring agreement and “the person hiring it had signed a statement of liability acknowledging his liability in respect of any penalty charge notice”. You signed that at the desk. It is why a Congestion Charge penalty can reach you, with the firm’s own administration fee attached, weeks after you have flown home.

If you do hire one: where to collect it, and whether your licence works

The single best decision is to collect the car on the way out rather than at the start of the trip. The Congestion Charge zone is small and central; the ULEZ is all of Greater London. So an airport or outer-suburban pick-up puts you inside the emissions zone — harmless for a modern hire car — while keeping you out of the £18 charge entirely, provided you do not drive into the centre. Spend the city days on public transport, then pick the car up on the morning you leave.

Airport rental desks are reached differently at each London airport: some airports gather every operator into one off-site rental centre served by a free shuttle, others keep desks in each terminal and drive you to the car by the operator’s own transfer bus. Either way the walk-to-wheels time is longer than the signage suggests, so do not book the pick-up tight against a landing time. Check arrival options first on London flights.

On licences, Great Britain is unusually relaxed. A visitor holding a full and valid licence from any country may drive a car or motorcycle listed on it for 12 months from the date they last entered Great Britain. No international permit is required for that year for a small vehicle, though individual hire companies may still ask for a translation.

Minimum ages, young-driver surcharges, the length of time the licence must have been held and the size of the deposit are the hire company’s commercial policy rather than law, and they differ sharply between firms — check them before you pay, not at the counter. General guidance on excess, fuel policy and deposits sits on the car rentals page, and how booking works explains what this site does and does not sell.

Common questions

Do I need a car in London?

For London itself, almost certainly not. A single weekday in the centre starts at £18 in Congestion Charge before you park, and a Westminster bay for a typical petrol car runs from £5.35 to £7.78 an hour depending on zone. TfL puts the cost of congestion alone at £942 per driver in 2024. A car earns its keep on the day you leave London, not on the days you are in it.

How much is the London Congestion Charge and when does it apply?

£18 a day since 2 January 2026, up from £15. It applies 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and only 12:00 noon to 18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. There is no charge overnight, none before noon at weekends, and none at all from Christmas Day through to the New Year’s Day bank holiday.

Will I have to pay the ULEZ charge in a hire car?

Almost certainly not. The £12.50 daily charge only applies to vehicles below Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 standards — broadly, petrol cars registered before 2006 and diesels before September 2015. By September 2024, 97.4% of cars and private hire vehicles driving in London complied. Confirm the registration at the desk and then forget about it. A large van or motorhome is a different matter under the Low Emission Zone.

What happens if I forget to pay the Congestion Charge?

You have a short tail: the day itself, or on or before the third day after. After that the penalty charge is £180, halved to £90 if paid within the first fourteen days of the 28-day payment period and increased to £270 once a charge certificate is issued. Because you signed a statement of liability at the rental desk, the hire company passes it to you rather than paying it.

What does it cost to park in central London?

In Westminster, priced by emissions band, a typical petrol car pays £5.35 an hour in zone A and £7.78 in zones F and G, plus up to 30p per transaction to the payment app and a 50% surcharge on pre-2015 diesels. In the City of London it is £7.20 an hour Monday to Friday 8am to 7pm with a four-hour maximum — but only £2 on Saturday mornings and free on Saturday afternoons, Sundays and bank holidays.

Can I drive in the UK on my own licence, and do I need a permit?

A visitor with a full and valid licence from any country may drive a car for 12 months from the date they last entered Great Britain. That covers any normal holiday without an international driving permit, although a hire company may still want a translation of a non-Latin-script licence. Minimum age and licence-held rules are the firm’s own policy and vary.

Sources

Fares, journey times and operating rules on this page were checked against these sources on 11 September 2026. Authorities change fares and timetables without notice — confirm anything time-critical on the operator’s own site.

• Transport for London - Congestion Charge proposals, the 18 pound charge and Cleaner Vehicle Discount
• Transport for London - consolidated Greater London Central Zone Congestion Charging Order 2004
• Transport for London - London-wide Ultra Low Emission Zone one year report
• TfL Board, 4 December 2024 - Silvertown and Blackwall Tunnels user charges
• GOV.UK - Pay the Dartford Crossing charge, rates, deadline and fines
• Road User Charging Enforcement and Adjudication London Regulations 2001, regulation 13
• City of Westminster - parking-related fees and charges from 13 July 2026
• City of London Corporation - on-street parking rates and scam warning
• GOV.UK - driving in Great Britain on a non-GB licence, visitor from any other country