Per the RAC Foundation, the total income from parking in England 2017-18 exceeded £1.6 BILLION; 5% higher than in 2016-17.
But what about the surplus cash produced? The report ‘Local Authority Parking Finances in England’ revealed, in the last four years, car parking charges have generated 32% more surplus for councils in England.
This amounted to a whopping £867 million* in extra cash from on and off-street parking in 2017-18; a 6% rise on the previous year. Of this total, £406 million (47%) came from London and £461 million from the rest of England.
This data, alongside the news many councils are planning to increase their parking charges from April 2019, encouraged Click4reg.co.uk 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*.
Click4reg found, outside of London, Brighton & Hove council is currently making the most surplus cash from on and off-street parking – at £23.4 million. A 10% change on the £21.2 million surplus received in 2016-17.
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.)
Considerable excess cash is also raked in by councils in Cornwall (£9.7 million), Bristol (£9.5 million) and Manchester with £9.4 million. For Manchester, this represents a change of 21% on the £7.8 million surplus they received in 2016-17 and the fourth largest surplus change nationally.
Other notable changes can be seen in Bath & North East Somerset (receiving £7.8 million in 2017-18; a change of 24% on 2016-17), Southampton (receiving £6.8 million in 2017-18; a change of 62% on 2016-17) and Medway Towns, who received £5 million in surplus cash from on and off-street parking in 2017-18, an astounding change of 65% on 2016-17 figures; the highest found outside of London.
However, some decreases can also be noted. 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 excludes a £1.7 million surplus from parking in National Parks and a £9 million surplus from the Nottingham workplace parking levy.
*The on-street parking surpluses must by law be used for transport projects.
