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.
