Forum Topic

Parking Levy

Recently I've read and heard that the Government could allow councils to place a parking levy on staff coming to work and park at their businesses in there cars. Does any one know if Hounslow are proposing this?

David Squire ● 2567d28 Comments

Since nobody wants to pay any taxes and everyone seems to spend such a lot of time trying to avoid if not evade any taxes how do Governments or Councils raise revenue?When everything was very local it was easier but now it isn't the same.You have global corporations taking the proverbial. You have a lot of people in work (so we are told the statistics tell us) BUT we are not told how many of those are not earning enough for a decent and stress-free standard of living and what percentage of those need to and what percentage manage to access and get benefits to make up the difference.We have thousands of job vacancies for instance in the NHS but we don't have the trained personnel to take them - even if they wanted to brave the stressful conditions working in an underfunded and under-resourced workplace or could manage it for any length of time.

Philippa Bond ● 2541d

Motorised road users subsidise just about everything that moves.Tax is paid on fuel and VAT on all consumablesInsurance in also taxedCar tax, Road charges, parking permits, VAT on repairs.Total it up and it runs into a huge percentage of an average to low income.But without the vehicle, I would not have any sort of income at all.  And without the car I would not pay any tax in any form.And without that tax, nothing else would get paid for either.So other ways to raise money will have to be found.  Taxing Cyclists to use cycle way?  Taxing people to use the bus? Taxing pedestrians to cross bridges.Problem is we have a warped system of smoke and mirrors distorting everything. Parking charges are an artificial creation of accounting. So is carbon    unit charging. Pay to pollute but it solves nothing just shifts the problem and onus onto someone or somewhere else.Until this obsession with charging and taxing is removed, the real issues will never get solved, just increase the divide between those who can afford and those who cannot.

Raymond Havelock ● 2542d

When I had a company car I lost 25% of my personal tax allowance.

David Squire ● 2543d

You claim a tax on workers, when it is actually the potential removal of a subsidy for drivers.A subsidy that workers who don't drive haven't had.Nothing to do with Labour, either.

Steve Quantock ● 2543d

I meant some people have actually convinced themselves the state sector is wonderful.

Nicholas Beard ● 2563d

people actually believe is just snobbery and not trying to the best for your children?  They need to look at the parents and they'll see that overwhelmingly we drive old and knackered cars and work all the hours god gives us.Strange world we inhabit. 

Lorne Gifford ● 2563d

Lorne people believe this! Private schools dont have teaching assistants actually teaching either.

Nicholas Beard ● 2563d

And I'm not sure where you came up with the idea that Hounslow's schools are amongst the best, because I can't see any on the list of the top 65 London schools.http://www.londonpreprep.com/2018/08/a-level-results-2018/

Lorne Gifford ● 2563d

'Snobbery'.... Actually, not true Vanessa and a typical off-the-cuff and dismissive socialist remark.  Private schools tend to do so much better than state ones because the kids are driven extremely hard with absolutely no excuses in an extremely competitive environment.  There's no, 'non competitive, you're all winners' mentality, just 'you play to win'.  Bit like life really.

Lorne Gifford ● 2563d

"Why do so many people choose private education then. Just burning off their surplus money?"Snobbery

Vanessa Smith ● 2564d

Why do so many people choose private education then. Just burning off their surplus money?

Nicholas Beard ● 2564d

Really Nicholas"In Luxembourg you do not have to send your children to private schools because of the terrible state schools like here"Absolutely not true - London's secondaries in particular are excellent, and Hounslow's schools are among the top state schools in the Greater London area. What they do need is proper consistent funding and not to see oodles of government money going to a few privileged kids in grammar schools (beloved of T.May) and the waste that is Free schools. Our NHS for all its faults is marvellous as I found out last week. The danger is that with Brexit the Americans will move in to snaffle contracts and we could see creeping privatisation spreading.Anyway comparing us with Luxembourg is ridiculous, it is a tiny country with a tiny population.

Vanessa Smith ● 2564d

Ridiculous tax on workers. It’s not government driven, this is being implemented in Labour run city councils and London boroughs. It has nothing to do with wanting clean air, but instead raise money for TFL who are 900million in debt.

Philippa Auton ● 2565d

In Luxembourg you do not have to send your children to private schools because of the terrible state schools like here. We have a huge number of students in private schools here and labour will not remove their charitable status. Their health service is better. Think of the savings for comuters people pay thousands per year here it will be free there. More public holidays.

Nicholas Beard ● 2565d

No doubt, but all this doesn't disguise the fact that if you're an average Joe in Luxembourg, 5% more of what you earn goes into the public purse than it does here. I've no doubt that some of their taxes are lower, but overall their taxes are higher. Not my opinion, the OECD's.It's true that part of this is National Insurance (Income taxes are also 5% higher in Luxembourg) so some of their tax take goes towards higher state pensions. I guess some goes towards public transport as well!https://www.oecd.org/tax/revenue-statistics-2522770x.htm

Guy Lambert ● 2565d

One of the reasons that Luxembourg looks higher is because social security ( national insurance ) contributions are included. In Luxembourg they are higher than the UK but they include significant occupational pension contributions ( which are not included in the UK figures ). If you were to add in similar levels of pension contributions to the UK numbers then the UK would have a higher %ge tax take.

James Morris ● 2565d

Interestingly, a friend who moved to Luxembourg bought his car as a company car.  Apparently you get very good tax advantages from doing so.

Lorne Gifford ● 2565d

The Workplace Parking Levy (WPL)is certainly a tax on the use of road vehicles. As with Vehicle Excise Duty, Company Car Tax and, arguably, fuel duty it is a tax to imvest in public transport to compensate for the costs of road maintenance, congestion, pollution, and deaths and injuries caused by vehicle use.WPL has legislative backing in the Road Traffic Act 2000 and subseqent amendements to that Act.I believe that Hounslow have just completed a consultation on the introduction of WPL to the north and south of part of the Great West Road from Syon Lane to Windmill Road. This includes major employment sites including Tesco Osterley, Sky and GSK. There are several proposed exemptions from WPL including smaller businesses and parking for the disabled.I understand that the results of the consultation will be analysed and reported before any firm decisions are made.The cost of the WPL per parking space could be calculated on the basis of the cost of a return bus ticket (about £3 per day). The entire proceeds from the levy will be applied to making public transport improvements. In Hounslow's case these improvements could include:     1]A new train service between the existing train stations at Syon Lane and Brentford up to Old Oak Common (connecting to HS2) and onto Cricklewood2]A new passenger train service connecting the Great Western Mainline and Crossrail linking Southall with Brentford through provision of a new station adjacent to West Cross Industrial Park.  3]Improved bus services to and along the Great West Road, including a potential express service between Osterley and Gunnersbury stations.4]Improved walking and cycling access along the Great West Road corridor  Nottingham has already introduced a WPL and other cities including Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh and Glasgow are developing similar schemes.About a year ago a WPL scheme for Greater Manchester was rejected by councillors.In my mind there's not a lot to dislike about WPL schemes but in the shorter term I would be concerned about increased pressures on the creaking public transport system in our part of London.

Jim Storrar ● 2565d

I agree. Its not just lower bus fares there though its free public transport. Intercity trains buses etc all of it.

Nicholas Beard ● 2565d

these types of cross country comparisons simply don't work.  You're a nice chap Guy, but please don't fall into that old Labour policy of cherry picking things to shift the blame or to give a false impression. As you point out, Luxembourg is a richer country than the UK, so of course there's more tax paid by the average individual, because he or she earns more.  As another example, look at their property purchase tax and you'll see it's 7%, which is a lot lower than the 12% that a large portion of London property buyers have to pay, and the price they pay to buy each square meter of property looks like it's a third of that in London.  As a third example if Gordon Brown hadn't sold all our gold off when gold was at historically low prices, then perhaps we'd have enough reserves to pay for something like free hoppa tickets. Forth example; perhaps the cost of the Nuclear free zone policy that the local council had for Houslow back in the 80's.  Fifth example, the cash reserves the supposedly broke council is hording (about an entire years council tax for each of us council tax payers). Sixth example.... and so on.As to making people pay to park at their offices, then on one hand I'm in favour as it reduces the illegal level of pollution we all breathe in Brentford (which the council appear to be very good at doing nothing about) and on the other hand I'm not in favour of it because it's a touch draconian and in the style of local government that you might expect from 1970's East Germany.

Lorne Gifford ● 2565d

I was looking at overall tax take as a % of GDP, so not misleading at all!In fact, as Luxembourgers' GDP per head is a lot higher than ours their tax take per head is even higher!

Guy Lambert ● 2565d

Saying that Luxembourgers (or whatever it is they're called) pay more tax the we do in Britain and therefore we should all pay more to support lower bus fares is very misleading.  If you account for the much higher property purchase tax and fuel taxes that we pay as just two examples, you'll find the overall tax take is about the same.The difference is in how that tax has been spent or wasted over the years

Lorne Gifford ● 2565d

We could also reduce our defence spending to their level. That would give us more. In any case after Brexit we will have imense sums to use from all the massive trade deals the world is waiting to strike with us.

Nicholas Beard ● 2566d

Luxembourg take about 5.4% more of their national income in taxes.If we matched their tax rate, given that our national income is about £2 trillion, the treasury would have about £108 billion extra to spend every year.That would pay for a few Hoppa fares.

Guy Lambert ● 2566d

If the government  really wanted people to use puplic transport why dont they follow Luxembourgs lead and make it free.

Nicholas Beard ● 2566d

Who knows? I was brought up in the Wirral and the commute to Liverpool was via Queensway (aka The Mersey Tunnel). This was opened in 1933 and tolls were supposed to cease once the debt was paid. They quietly continued until 1980 when they were enshrined in law as permanent. £1.80 each way now.

Guy Lambert ● 2566d

Most people who come to work at two biggest firms along the Great West Road who come by public transport now use South Western Trains which is a different operator.I know the government are trying to get people onto public transport, but.. theses cars bring so much to the treasury in road Tax, VAT a good chunk of fuel costs. Where would the revenue come from once you have paid for the station. Once the station has been paid for will the Parking tax be removed?

David Squire ● 2566d

There is a proposal to consult on this on the Great West Road. The idea is to help pay for the proposed station there which would link to Southall for HS2

Guy Lambert ● 2566d