Councils have turned parking into a “huge cash cow” in England by raking in almost £1billion, the latest figures show.
AA analysis of Government data published on Thursday (October 12) found English local authorities made a surplus of £962million in the 2022/23 financial year.
That was made up of a whopping £673m from on-street parking and £289m from car parks.
The total for both types of parking was just £318m during the 12 months before, which was affected by curbs on travel due to Covid.
In 2018/19, before the pandemic, councils recorded a staggering surplus of £936m, which included £364m from car parks alone.
Jack Cousens, Head of Roads Policy at the AA, said: “Once again, official statistics show councils have turned parking into a huge cash cow, not just a service to stimulate local trade and support workers and visitors.
“However, the nearly £75million, or 20 percent crash in the surplus from car parks must be particularly worrying for cash-strapped councils.
“While the Covid fallout such as people working from home and the economic downturn are factors in the decline, hikes in parking charges by councils have contributed and helped to drive more shoppers online.
“In effect, many local authorities are killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”
Three councils in London made the most money from parking. In terms of total net income for on and off street parking, Westminster is top of the table, taking £71,604,000, the figures show.
Westminster is followed by Kensington & Chelsea (£41,074,000), Hammersmith & Fulham (£34,693,000), Brighton & Hove (£30,150,000) and Camden (£30,113,000).
If boroughs in the capital are left out, then Brighton & Hove comes top, followed by Nottingham (£14,732,000), Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (£13,463,000), Manchester (£13,286,000) and North Norfolk (£11,379,000).
Councils’ parking management involves operational costs, but money is received through charges and fines.
A spokesman for the Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, said: “Income raised through parking charges is spent on running parking services.
“Any surplus is spent on essential transport projects, including fixing the £14billion road repairs backlog, reducing congestion, tackling poor air quality and supporting local bus services.
“Motorists can avoid fines by ensuring they observe parking and traffic rules that are only there to help all drivers get around and find parking safely, smoothly and fairly.”
