Birmingham considering workplace parking tax

I'm not a car owner but I do have strong reservations about these schemes. As always the well off will feel virtually no impact in their pocket (but will probably be one of the biggest groups to bitch about it) and so it will be the poorer end of the economic spectrum who will be hit hardest. And at the same time what infrastructure will be put in to place to cater for those who choose/are forced to use public transport/cycle or walk to work? I am massively for the reduction of motorised road traffic but a whole raft of physical and social changes need to be made your cities and society.

Surely a commercial property with car parking has a higher rateable value than a similar one without. Hence they should already be paying more business rates.

Administering a new tax comes with the needs for a new set of rules and an admin to run it. I think they should use the existing system properly and don't create a new expense.

Would make more sense to tax out of town business parks rather than city centre ones.

Landlords build cheap out of town offices where there is often no option other than driving (or cycling ;))

Where as City Centre offices are more expensive but much easier to reach by public transport.

In Leeds I have worked in offices 5 mins walk from the railway station where aroung 75% of people arrived by public transport. I'm currently in an office less than two miles away but almost unreachable by public transport and despite a company shuttle bus to the station well ove 90% of staff arrive by car.

Caroline Pidgeon talks about it quite prominently, as a way of reducing traffic in London. It's a shame no one else is.

Yep, it's absolutely an employee perk, and I say that as someone who has had a work parking space in London. Parking is a major cost of car travel, I don't see why that's an untaxed perk when I can't claim for train travel to and from a regular workplace.

The Workplace Parking Levy has had a huge impact on cycling infrastructure and public transport in Nottingham. I expect other cities to consider doing this. The long-term benefits to a city are huge.

If a company provides you with "free" lunch it's treated as a taxable benefit. Same with any other benefits. You pay income tax on the equivalent value. Stops people avoiding income tax.

Car parking is currently excluded from this. If you work in a city, parking can be as much as 25 quid a day. It's a significant way of avoiding tax.

Really, there are just closing the loophole.

I live in Nottingham and was serving on the board of a pretty major firm when then came into effect and the bigger businesses were NOT happy about this at all. There were advisors talking about changing one bay into a flower planter to avoid the levy etc

It's hard to see the difference it has made in everyday terms, but we are getting there slowly as far as joined up travel thinking is concerned, the tramways are developing, the bus network is pretty sweet, and cycling is more catered for.

Expect the firms in Brum to kick up a stink! Very short-sighted views, but maybe cycling has developed enough in past 6 years that people can see alternatives.

Double post, please ignore!

Nottingham City owns the local bus company and tram network with plenty of park and ride facilities on the outskirts. It's also busy building a network of London-style cycle superhighways and introducing its own version of an Oyster Card. All these are partially funded through the Workplace Parking Levy. Also, employers are starting to ask their employees who insist on driving to work to pay the levy out of their own pockets.

My company buys business parking permits from the council and gives them to employees who drive. This is essentially a perk denied to those who choose or are forced to commute by other means.

It's encouraging that Birmingham realises that we can't go on this way, with our towns and cities being dominated by motor vehicles, and ever more congestion.

I don't agree that it is money-grabbing and will have no effect. Behaviour can be influenced. People will make decisions on how to travel based on a number of factors, including convenience and cost. This proposal would add to the cost of driving into the city centre.

I understand why there is cynicism about politics, and in some cases it's justified. But if we respond to all ideas by assuming the worst motives, and instantly dismiss them as ineffective, how are we ever going to improve our society?

This has noting to do with helping the city centre, just money grabing councils trying to squeeze every last penny out of tax paying people to pay for the miss management of council funds, councils have been getting away with it for years its a disgrace.

No impact just money grabbing.

£375 is equivalent to 19p per hour on top of the rate of employing people. +The spaces won't dissappear whatever people do.