Parking 'profits' climb yet again
English councils have made another record surplus from their parking activities.
In 2012-13 councils generated a combined ‘profit’ of £594 million from their day to day, on and off street parking operations.
This is a 5% increase on the 2011-12 figure of £565 million.
Although not all councils made a large surplus, very few lose money on their parking activities. Just 52 (15%) of the 353 parking authorities in England reported negative numbers.
The figures are calculated by adding up income from parking charges and penalty notices, then deducting running costs.
Even after allowing for capital charges (interest and depreciation), the combined surplus in 2012-13 was still £460 million.
This is a 12% increase on the £412 million figure for 2011-12. (The full table of all councils is here.)
The data, studied for the RAC Foundation by David Leibling, comes from the annual returns that councils make to the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The authority with the largest surplus in 2012-13 was Westminster with £39.7 million. The four biggest earners were all London authorities with only Brighton, Nottingham and Manchester breaking into a top ten dominated by councils in the capital.
