Drove My Chevy to the Levy!

The costs of workplace parking
Just when you thought it was safe to drive your car to work again, the Workplace Parking Levy (England) Regulations 2009 are set to make their entrance. Britain’s first workplace parking levy scheme is proposed for Nottingham and has been approved by Nottingham City Council. This will result in employers being charged for providing the benefit of enabling their employees to park their car at the workplace. The parking levy scheme in Nottingham will no doubt set a precedent for other cities across the country, once the operational practicalities and considerations have been observed and ironed out.

The Regulations have been drafted to force all employers who offer 11 or more parking spaces at their premises to pay a levy. This is set at a minimum of £250 per year and is a charge made for each parking place provided by employers and which is used by employees, certain types of business visitors, pupils and students. It is important to note that this is a charge on the employer rather than the employee. Employers will be required to obtain a licence on an annual basis in relation to the number of places that can be used over the course of a 12 month period. However, it is open to employers to pass on the charge to their employees and it will be of great interest to evaluate the response of employers once the charge is levied in Nottingham.

In Nottingham, there will be a City wide charging policy and all employers who provide parking places at their premises would become liable under this scheme. The levy itself is part of the government’s overall transport package, aimed at tackling traffic congestion. The stated objective is to encourage greater consideration of all realistic alternatives to the use of private motor vehicles by delivering high quality public transport.

A congestion charge has been in operation in London for some time but failed to become established in Manchester. This is the most well known method of persuading drivers to think twice about bringing their vehicle into a City Centre but the system has been found to be financially inefficient and extremely costly to operate and implement. The government has given Nottingham City Council the power to introduce this levy in October 2011 with an initial 100% discount for all employers but to commence charging from 1st April 2012.

The aim is to give employers some incentive to minimise their parking provision and at the same time, either directly or indirectly, to encourage the use of a more sustainable commuter travel mix by their workforce. Nottingham City Council believes that it is only fair that employers should accept their share of responsibility for the traffic congestion that exists in their city and that, via the levy, they should contribute towards the investment needed to improve public transport.

It seems that in Nottingham particularly employers and employees need to address immediately the implications of the forthcoming levy. It would however be wise of employers in other major conurbations to do likewise. It is somewhat unlikely that the pressure to reduce carbon emissions will decrease in the next five years and beyond. The levy is probably here to stay.

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