Council parking revenue in England 2018-1916 Nov 2019

Surplus heads towards a billion pounds

In 2018-19 English councils made a combined profit of £930 million from their parking activities.

The figure for the last financial year is up 7% on the £867 million councils made in 2017-18.

It is up 41% on the £658 million made in 2013-14.

The 353 local authorities in England received total income of £1.746 billion from their on- and off-street parking operations in 2018-19. This included £454 million from penalties, 6% higher than the £428 million in the previous financial year.

The amount they spent on running parking – as reported to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government – was £816 million. This does not include interest payments or depreciation on their capital assets such as car parks as these figures are not accounted for in the official data.

The difference between the income and expenditure figures – £930 million – is the surplus (profit) from day to day operations.

 £million 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 budget Change 2018-19 on 2017-18
On-street Fees and permits 435 472 424 501 526 558 6%
Penalties 340 328 397 388 428 454 6%
Total income 775 800 821 889 954 1,012 6%
Expenditure 408 421 407 414 431 439 2%
Surplus 367 379 414 475 523 573 10%
 
Off-street Total income 640 645 670 693 706 734 4%
Expenditure 349 341 340 349 362 377 4%
Surplus 291 304 330 344 344 357 4%
 
All parking Total income 1,415 1,445 1,491 1,582 1,660 1,746 5%
Expenditure 757 762 747 763 793 816 3%
Surplus (profit) 658 683 744 819 867 930  913 7%

Note: some numbers might not sum because of rounding.

The numbers were assessed for the RAC Foundation by David Leibling.

Of the 353 councils who returned parking figures to central government only 41 reported a loss on their parking operations.

The analysis leaves out the £9.7 million generated in Nottingham from the workplace parking levy. It also excludes the six national parks.

As in previous years, the largest profits are being made by councils in London.