How workplace parking levies might help city-centre drivers

City councils are considering charging people to park at their workplaces in order to reduce traffic congestion

If you drive to work, you could be forced to pay to park there in the near future, as local authorities are considering implementing workplace parking levies (WPL).

Currently, only businesses in Nottingham are charged a yearly fee (£458 per space for car parks with more than 10 spaces) and have been for the last decade or so. However, other areas are now considering introducing similar schemes.

Earlier this month, the Scottish government introduced legislation allowing councils to bring in the charge, with Glasgow City Council among the authorities that have expressed an early interest. Meanwhile, a consultation launched by Leicester City Council seeking views on a WPL in the city has recently closed.

According to Leicester councillor Adam Clarke, the deputy city mayor responsible for environment and transportation, there are three main reasons why the council is pursuing the scheme.

“We’ve got a huge challenge in terms of city growth, there’s the health impact that comes from pollution and there’s also the climate emergency and our obligations to decarbonise transport,” he explained.

“We’re not anti-car; it’s about choosing the right mode for each journey and also reducing congestion so those who do need to use cars have an easy trip."

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The consultation was launched earlier this year as part of a manifesto pledge that was first made in 2019. However, since then, working patterns have changed with more people working from home than before as a result of the pandemic, but Clarke still believes a WPL is required to reduce traffic levels.

“What we’ve seen is that while the peak times are slightly flatter, congestion levels [are] returning to normal since the end of lockdown. The city projection growth over the next 10 years means that it isn’t going to be easy to manage congestion,” he said.

Should a WPL be introduced, all revenue has to be ringfenced for improvements to public-transport services.

Nottingham’s tram system has been extended using money generated from its scheme.

Councillor Rosemary Healy, portfolio holder for transport, extolled the benefits of a WPL: “Nottingham has among the highest public-transport use in the country outside London. The WPL has had a 47% constraining effect on congestion growth that's saving businesses £5.5 million per year and the council £11m per year, as well as saving 7840 tonnes of carbon emissions to the benefit of the environment and residents’ health.”

She added: “No businesses have left Nottingham due to the WPL and many have invested here in the knowledge they may have to pay it. There was early resistance from some in the business community to the idea of the WPL, but we've had 100% compliance from day one, and the WPL is highly efficient to operate.”

Leicester’s Clarke, meanwhile, said the intention is for a “tram-like bus network” to be created in the city using money generated from a scheme while also reducing journey times for the remaining car users.

“What we’re proposing is that every car journey and commute will be as if it is during the school holidays. I think that’s really attractive for a driver but getting that across is really difficult,” he said.

He added that a WPL is a better approach than a clean air zone, because the former targets a specific issue, rather than using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. 

“A workplace parking levy deals with peak-time congestion and only peak-time congestion, and that’s where the damage to the economy is; that’s where you get the worst effects of pollution," he said. "To deal with peak-time congestion it is the best option."

Meanwhile, Glasgow councillor Anna Richardson, city convener for sustainability and carbon reduction, told Autocar that the Scottish city is “currently exploring the potential for a workplace licensing scheme”.

She added: “A workplace scheme could help to rebalance our transport system so that travel is easier, more affordable and fairer for the near 50% of Glasgow households without access to a private car. As part of the fight against climate change, a licensing scheme for workplace parking could raise substantial funds for the sustainable transport projects needed to address the carbon impact of how we travel in Glasgow.”

Others, however, remain to be convinced that a WPL would help ease congestion in cities.

Paul Hollick, chairman of the Association of Fleet Professionals, told Autocar his members are in favour of WPLs, but only if they're implemented in a sensible manner.

“There’s no point in rolling out a parking levy, [then] employers reduce the number of parking spaces and employees park elsewhere, clogging up other areas of a city,” he warned.

It’s clear that businesses have worries, concerned about the chicken-and-egg situation of taxing motorists before there’s a realistic alternative.

Stuart Patrick, chief executive of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said that while companies support moves to reduce pollution, “there's a lack of evidence to suggest this tax will encourage modal shift in our city, as there's an inadequate public-transport provision, and that end users don't automatically bear the cost.”

Patrick warned that if the council pushed ahead with the scheme, “it would damage the competitiveness of Glasgow in attracting jobs and investment”.

“Taxing businesses that offer car-parking spaces for their employees simply ignores the major barriers that workers face when looking to use public transport: the lack of availability and affordability of these services,” he concluded.


Daniel Puddicombe