These councils have made the biggest profits from parking fees and fines
English councils made a record £819 million “profit” through parking fees and fines last year – with London boroughs leading the way.
The largest surpluses saw the 33 London boroughs making £379 million between them – 46% of the English total.
Westminster generated the biggest profit margin in England at £73.2 million, up 31% on the previous year.
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Kensington & Chelsea came second with £32.2 million (down 6%) and Camden with £26.8 million (up 6%).
Local authority | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | Ranking by 2016-17 surplus |
£,000s (Except all English councils total which is in millions) | ||||||
Westminster | 39,705 | 51,037 | 46,426 | 55,875 | 73,191 | 1 |
Kensington & Chelsea | 30,437 | 33,512 | 32,997 | 34,237 | 32,174 | 2 |
Camden | 23,531 | 24,869 | 24,468 | 25,228 | 26,751 | 3 |
Hammersmith & Fulham | 19,395 | 22,960 | 23,787 | 22,672 | 23,077 | 4 |
Brighton & Hove | 16,254 | 18,090 | 18,642 | 20,075 | 21,213 | 5 |
Wandsworth | 15,887 | 19,692 | 20,350 | 21,174 | 20,506 | 6 |
Islington | 8,216 | 10,381 | 13,732 | 15,532 | 19,111 | 7 |
Haringey | 5,213 | 5,700 | 16,145 | 14,917 | 14,635 | 8 |
Hackney | 7,756 | 8,219 | 10,758 | 12,920 | 14,505 | 9 |
Hounslow | 6,407 | 7,814 | 7,655 | 7,196 | 11,972 | 10 |
Lambeth | 12,004 | 7,219 | 9,683 | 9,942 | 11,923 | 11 |
Milton Keynes | 6,668 | 8,160 | 9,042 | 10,757 | 11,143 | 12 |
Birmingham | 6,869 | 7,756 | 9,699 | 9,816 | 11,129 | 13 |
Brent | 2,666 | 8,310 | 10,506 | 7,954 | 10,534 | 14 |
Merton | 6,868 | 7,015 | 7,226 | 6,681 | 10,227 | 15 |
Cornwall | 8,078 | 8,019 | 8,693 | 9,813 | 9,742 | 16 |
Bristol | 4,222 | 7,495 | 6,053 | 7,696 | 9,537 | 17 |
Tower Hamlets | 7,000 | 8,318 | 10,038 | 9,479 | 9,504 | 18 |
Newham | 8,163 | 7,202 | 7,327 | 7,692 | 8,886 | 19 |
Barnet | 813 | 7,879 | 346 | 6,703 | 8,643 | 20 |
ALL ENGLISH COUNCILS | £587m | £658m | £683m | £744m | £819m |
The biggest profits outside of London were reported by Brighton & Hove (£21.2 million), and Milton Keynes and Birmingham (£11.1 million each).
The RAC Foundation research shows that in 2016-17, the 353 local authorities in England had a total income from on- and off-street parking activities of £1.582 billion – up 6% year-on-year.
This comprised both parking charges (fees and permits) and penalty income.
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At the same time, the councils spent £763 million on running their parking operations – up 2% year-on-year.
The difference between income and expenditure – £819 million – is the surplus or ‘profit’ available to be spent on transport locally.
That is 40% higher than the £587m generated just four years ago.
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “The upward path in profits is in part a reflection of the record number of cars and volume of traffic.
“The silver lining for drivers is that these surpluses must almost exclusively be ploughed back into transport and as any motorist will tell you there is no shortage of work to be done.”
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Many motorists caught out by a traffic warden or getting fined for overstaying their stint in the town centre car park for a couple of minutes will no doubt be angry at the level of money generated through parking fees.
But Gooding added: “We welcome the fact that councils are increasingly investing in technology to help make parking easier and less stressful.
“Westminster, for example, has created an app which directs drivers to free parking bays, helping to end the motoring misery of prowling the streets looking for a space.”