Parking charges in Britain are set to be increased in Britain despite councils making millions more in revenue. Data from the RAC Foundation found that the total income from parking in England 2017-18 exceeded £1.6 billion. This is an increase of five per cent than in 2016-17 in the total income. However, new research has found that the amount of surplus cash generated has generated significantly more surplus cash.
The report ‘Local Authority Parking Finances in England’ revealed, in the last four years, 32 per cent more surplus cash was made for councils in England.
This amounted to a whopping £867 million in extra cash from on and off-street parking in 2017-18, top six per cent from the previous year.
Almost half (47 per cent) came from London charges, totalling £406 million while the rest (£461 million) came from the remaining areas of England.
Click4reg.co.uk analysed the data of council surplus cash to find out which councils in England – outside of the capital – are currently making the most in surplus parking charges. Money which, by law, is to be used for transport projects only.
It found that outside of London, Brighton & Hove council is currently making the most surplus cash from on and off-street parking – at £23.4 million.
Milton Keynes council earn the second highest surplus from parking, at £11.3 million, swiftly chased by the surplus achieved in Birmingham (£11.2 million.)
Manchester saw a 21 per cent increase in the surplus cash generated from charge increasing to £7.8million.
Southampton and Medway Towns saw the largest percentage increase in surplus from parking charges at 62 per cent and 65 per cent generating £6.8 million and £5 million respectively.
Despite the majority of councils seeing an increase, there were also a few decreases.
On and off-street parking surplus fell by -3% in Guildford 2017-18; falling from £7.6 million the previous year, to £7.3 million.
In Cambridge, parking surplus fell by -6% (£6.2 million in 2016-17 to £5.8 million in 2017-18), while decreases in Nottingham (excluding the workplace parking levy) and York followed suit.
This news comes as it has been reveale councils are planning to increase their parking charges from April.
Some motorists face an increase of up to 230 per cent from April 2019. Councils will be increasing the cost of many town car parks and residential permits.
RAC spokesman Steve Gooding said: “With sums this large in play, the question must be whether they are actually helping our town centres and high streets to thrive, or whether it feels more like motorists being targeted to help increasingly cash-strapped councils balance their books.”
Edmund King, president of the AA, said: “Drivers beware. April sees the start of new tactics for some councils going after more cash from drivers.
“Some councils are already budgeting to make millions of pounds more from motorists, on top of the millions they already get, by increasing parking charges, extending restricted parking zones, enforcing new bus lanes and looking for new opportunities to catch drivers.”
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