Millions of motorists who drive to work are facing having to pay for the right to use their office or factory car park.
Nottingham city council is due to become the first authority in the country to introduce a workplace parking levy in a move that is being watched closely by local authorities elsewhere in the country.
Its initial draft for the scheme suggested that each space would be subject to an annual £184 fee at February 2005 prices.
The idea of treating an employer-provided parking space as a taxable benefit has been considered by the Treasury.
Full article at:
tinyurl.com/yfmzea
--
Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
|
Nottingham has been talking about this for a long time:
www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/news/2001_03/28/boots.sht...l
|
Which other tax will be reduced to balance the books?
|
To quote Gordon Brown "None"
--
Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
|
|
|
A lot of people already pay to park at work, particularly in the public sector. For example I visited Lancaster Uni some years ago and all the staff there pay using a pay-and-display machine, it was about £2 a day IIRC. I also know someone who works at Uni of Hertfordshire and they pay a couple of hundred pounds a year for 'access' to the car park - he grumbles because although he gets 'access' he doesn't always get a space! I imagine that in a city centre any free car parking is quite a valuable perk.
|
John Prescott proposed taxing work parking places some years ago and was eventually shot down in flames when it was realised just how much it would/could affect voting habits.
It's easy for those who don't have to worry about dipping into their pockets to pay for such facilities to conjure up fund raising ideas/taxes.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
>>John Prescott proposed taxing work parking places some years ago >>
IIRC he also proposed a parking tax if you visited your local supermarket by car.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
|
|
What concerns me is that some employees will have their salaries increased by £184.00 per annum to compensate them... others won't...
Tim{P}
|
What about employes who already have to pay to park at work? My employer charges £36 to park in its car park, which it owns and runs for staff. I do not own a company car.
I pay £36 per month, plus petrol because it would cost my wife and myself £8 per day to use the bus and there is only one bus in the morning and one late afternoon.
Still cheaper to pay a small tax, but why should I? Will I be taxed until it costs more than £8 a day then I will have to take the bus?
|
What about employes who already have to pay to park at work? My employer charges £36 to park in its car park, which it owns and runs for staff. I do not own a company car. I pay £36 per month ............
Your company must somehow have the whip hand to be able to do this. I had free parking all my working life, and if a prospective employer had told me they charged for their car park I wouldn't have accepted the job.
--
L\'escargot.
|
|
|
A lot of people already pay to park at work, particularly in the public sector. For example I visited Lancaster Uni some years ago and all the staff there pay using a pay-and-display machine, it was about £2 a day IIRC. I also know someone who works at Uni of Hertfordshire and they pay a couple of hundred pounds a year for 'access' to the car park - he grumbles because although he gets 'access' he doesn't always get a space! I imagine that in a city centre any free car parking is quite a valuable perk.
Just the same situation facing Mrs H, a midwife. Darlington Memorial Hospital are quite happy to take money off their nursing staff for "access" which means nothing when the general public share the same car park. Being sensible and having an unremarkable car, Mrs H parks on the street.
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land
|
|
|
|
Under such schemes, what would happen to people who only visit the office once or twice a week? Would they pay the full amount? If so, that would remove some of the advantage of home working and make congestion worse... D'oh!
How about employees that could use the company car park but choose to park on the road instead? Would they be charged because they could theoretically use the company car park?
Seems like there's lots of potential flaws in this idea.
As an aside, with on street parking, out of town shopping centres and now company car parks all having to be paid for to park, how few places left are they where one can just drive to and park? It seems like soon, wherever and whenever we go anywhere we'll have to pay, unless it's a private driveway..and that'll probably incur extra council tax at some point. How depressing, eh?
A presume Europe is becoming similarly car hating, and Australia is much the same. Is there only the USA and Canada that remain as car loving nations that would be worth emigrating to? The joy and convenience of driving is disappearing so fast, I wonder whether my 2 year old son will ever know what it's like to actually enjoy driving and owning a car. :(
|
If these schemes are implemented I hope that MPs, Local Councellors and all others in authority, such as the Police also have to pay. Somehow I think that'd be unlikely.
How about Ministers being taxed for their government limos too? Sounds fair to me that thay pay for the taxable benefit of a chauffeur driven luxury car, and for parking at the house of commons and the various government offices.
|
It almost makes you understand why some people don't bother working and just claim of the state.
|
It almost makes you understand why some people don't bother working and just claim of the state.
Well, that would certainly exempt you from workplace parking charges. I wonder why going to work is so popular given the savings we could make from this idea. I salute your genius, sir.
|
|
|
What's the Police got to do with it. Most Police stations in my area do not provide parking for officers. They have to use pay and display or find somewhere else. Officers have recently had their car vandalised by the scroats they arrest.
However the civilian office managers, working 9x5, are provided with secure parking!
|
That's different to my area, the new city police station has the most scure and largest parking you could imagine - it's interesting watching them use it to do their shopping - either that or my area has alot of plain clothes police persons parking up and going on the beat. No problem with that though - they have got to have some perks for what the do.
|
|
|
>If these schemes are implemented I hope that MPs, Local Councellors and all others in authority, such as the Police also have to pay. Somehow I think that'd be unlikely.
In Stockport the council wants to bring in paid-for parking permts so that you can park outside ones own home, supposedly to cure the problem of local hospital staff parking off site to avoid fees. However, it is also proposed that all councillors would be issued with passes so thay would not have to pay!
|
In my part of the world the council offices have a large car park, but it is pay-and-display, so the staff and council officials do have to pay.
|
But those whose contract of employment require them to have access to a car for business visits should be able to claim it back. My parking is paid for by my employer as I need the car for my job.
|
|
The university where I work have just introduced a pay to park at work scheme for all staff.
The initial charge for this is 0.6% of your annual salary, though I feel quite sure this figure will be increased in years to come. Even paying this sum does not guarantee you a parking space, they say it's just a charge for the permit itself. There are fewer permits issued than numbers of people who want them (I didn't manage to obtain one in spite of the fact that I live 35 miles away!).
We have also been told that free workplace parking, which we previously enjoyed for many years, is now regarded as a staff perk by the taxman and that firms etc. offering a free parking facility are likely to be targeted by the revenue in the future.
|
The university where I work have just introduced a pay to park at work scheme for all staff.
As I said further up, I think this is fairly common in the public sector and has been for some years. I know it happens at some councils, probably most universities and some hospitals.
|
Talk about sledgehammers to crack nuts!
There has been a total abdication of government planning policies, both red and blue, national, regional and local, which has allowed development of residential areas to be in different areas to employment areas.
It's not difficult to understand that people need employment opportunities NEAR to residential areas but this doesn't happen so people have to travel further and further to work. But now they're being penalised for having to use their car!
Most congestion and pollution is caused by (in no particular order) travel to work, travel between meetings and road delivery of goods. If the government (whichever wins next time) were to introduce policies to reduce the NEED for these 3 then both congestion and poluution would be significantly reduced, almost at a stroke.
|
There has been a total abdication of government planning policies, both red and blue, national, regional and local, which has allowed development of residential areas to be in different areas to employment areas.
Isn't that what's called 'the market' - and supposedly a wonderful thing. Factories have been flattened and replaced with shopping-malls and executive housing developments. The same thing in fact that has led to the closure of Engineering and Science courses at many colleges and universities (to be replaced with business and media etc) and the transformation of the UK economy from the workshop of the world into a nation of property speculators and burger-flippers.
|
I think you'll find that many of us here in the BR are not 'property speculators'!
Err, would you like fries and a coke with that?
Kevin...
|
I think you'll find that many of us here in the BR are not 'property speculators'!
Maybe not, but I am amazed at how many people I meet these days have a house or two as a 'buy to let' - it seems to be considered as the Holy Grail. The general philosophy is 'why work when property inflation will do it for you'.
|
|
Isn't that what's called 'the market' - and supposedly a wonderful thing. Factories have been flattened and replaced
Yes Aprilia, Mrs Thatcher wasn't all bad - most people I know want to kill me when I say that - but she did bring this market thing invented in Chicago into British government, and I am afraid this lot believes in it too. We are mid-Atlantic and I find it very uncomfortable.
|
|
|
|
There was a picture in the local paper of a councillor with two cars in spaces in their car park (this is the land of "Two Jags"). Both were untaxed and SORN'd - they should be in the scrap yard!.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"car hating, and Australia is much the same"
I don't know where you visited in Australia but where I live in country WA it is not like that at all. We have heaps of parking space all over town and all is free. Most country towns are the same. If the wife can't park directly outside the shop she is going to and has to walk 20 yards she complains bitterly about the lack of parking.
Perth has lots of free parking space except in the central city and near the big sports ground (Subiaco Oval). In the case of Subiaco it is because the local councils got many complaints about sports fans parking everywhere and local residents not getting in. They introduced residents only parking.
|
I agree with expat re WA
When I visited Perth I stayed in my daughters rented flat that was in the middle of Subiaco, I certainly had no problems parking in / around the area. Albany WA was also not a problem.
The knock on effect with employees opting to park in the street is a big problem as is residents parking in some areas.
e.g In my overall area.
Many of the roads around Kingston Hospital have yellow lines now in order to spread out the parkers and allow trucks to access these roads.
Kingston have also pushed the commuters, who drive to near to Surbiton Station over the border and are now causing serious parking problems in the adjacent Elmbridge streets. Cones have now appeared to protect sight lines at junctions. I guess more yellow lines will come.
Pay for all parking seems to be the future for most workers.
|
It always amazes me how everyone just rolls over and accepts all this stuff.
If you don't like it protest some!
|
I'm going on the experience of my parents who lived in Perth for 10 years, and they related descriptions of speed cameras hidden in wheelie bins and zero tolerance on speeding (+1 Km/H over limit=ticket) plus the en-masse blocking of major routes to breath test *everyone* coming through, regardless of inconvenience caused. That hardly sounds car friendly to me, IMHO?
|
|
I cant see this going down too well where I work. There are around 40 spaces and 200 people so the maths dont really add up when it comes to staff using the car park. Unless you are in the office at the crack of dawn it is unfortunately the council/ASDA car park 5 minutes away.
I work between 2 sites positioned 20 miles from each other and spend most days split between the two (morning at one and afternoon at the other or vice versa) I have no control over what my employer expects and this means I would have to pay for 2 car parks, one of which I might park in once a week if I am lucky due to the lack of space.
This is going to become yet another tax on the motorist or an addition that the company is going to have to pay for their employees. The UK is already an expensive place to set up business and this really isnt going to help either way.
|
Yes, they did think about this a few years ago - but the value of a space in Birmingham is the same whether it is for the Bentley of a partner in a big law form or the nurses runabout and that probably killed it.
What I don't see is how they can justify charging a percentage of income...
BTW counciloors may pay to park at the coucil offices but I bet they claim the cost back on expenses!
|
|
|
|
|
Well, I live an work on opposite sided of Birmingham (22 miles each way) and for the past few months have managed to leave the car at home one day each week. When I am not in the car, I cycle to my local station, take the train (& bike) to city centre and cycle out to work from there. The train fare is about the same as my daily fuel bill so there is little cost saving. I am lucky though, because my place of work has showering & changing facilities. Yes, it takes longer than it would in the car, but I get soem good exercise at the same time.
Add to this the fact that the site where I work is currently being developed (more new office space) and govt regs mean that the number of parking places is somewhat less than the number of office seats so the already tricky parking situation will get worse.
It need not be a great problem for many employees to cycle once a week and, provided we do not all cycle on the same day, this should reduce the pressure on spaces by 1/5. So lets hear less about the provision of more parking spaces and more about the provision of showering and changing facilities!!
Would I be right in saying that a company "buy a bike scheme" is becoming more and more popular???
|
|
|
Obviously not many Back-roomers involved in property development. Nottingham City Council and some others in the UK have at least since the lat 90s been levying a substantial charge (£20,000 in the 90s from memory) for each car parking space included in a new business property development or redevelopment. This cost either has to be absorbed or passed on along with business rates by whoever eventually owns the new office building, and evidently some employers get something back by charging staff. Nottingham certainly introduced a high charge for developers to discourage the provision of parking spaces and I recall it was largely successful. This now appears to be an extension of that original scheme more purely directed to raising money, either through the rush of customers to the city's own park-and-rides or from charging for those existing spaces.
Incidentally, did you know that many of Nottingham's city centre office blocks are either owned by or have been redeveloped by the pension funds set up by the late Freddy Mercury (motoring connection: US car model) and fellow band members from Queen (wheels connection: once used number of unclothed ladies on bicycles in promotional video)?
|
Yes, Nottingham CC also do that for residential development, based on the number of bedrooms. I think it was about £1600 per bedroom to be spent on narrowing nearby roads, installing phantom traffic lights and probably loads on 'consultation' and 'commitees'.
|
|
It's interesting to see that even 900 after Robin Hood, the rulers of Nottingham and their agenda is not much different...
--------------------
[Nissan 2.2 dCi are NOT Renault engines. Grrr...]
|
>>I salute your genius, sir.<<
Thank you my man - it comes naturally.
|
It's not clear whether they mean to introduce this in their role as employer, charging their own employees for using the company car park, or in the wider sense of seeking the power to levy a "tax" on all workplace parking places, in their role as local authority.
The reference to the tax position of parking facilities implies the latter.
|
|
|
|