Now parking bays at shops face threat of new tax blitz
SUPERMARKETS and shopping centres could be hit by a parking tax on all the spaces they provide for customers.
Scotland’s biggest council wants the power to impose a levy on all non-residential parking spaces – in addition to those covered by the proposed workplace parking levy.
It would mean supermarkets, shopping centres and retail parks could be hammered by a new tax, expected to cost around £415 per year for every parking space. Sports stadiums, leisure facilities and industrial estates would also face the charge.
SNP-run Glasgow City Council, which has already announced its interest in a workplace parking levy, has formally requested the power to introduce a wider ‘non-residential parking levy’.
But Stuart Mackinnon, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: ‘While some town centre businesses will highlight that local parking is expensive to them in comparison to out-of-town malls or supermarkets, this measure is not the solution to the problem.
‘Smaller businesses will find it difficult to afford annual bills that can stretch into the thousands of pounds. Firms facing another cost increase will have to reduce spending or pass these rising overheads on to customers.’
The Scottish Government will consider a Green amendment to give councils the power to impose a workplace parking levy during stage two of the Transport (Scotland) Bill in the coming months.
In Nottingham, the only city in the UK to introduce a workplace parking levy, companies have to pay £402 per space – rising to £415 in April – while 40 per cent of firms pass the charge on to employees.
The city councils in Edinburgh and Glasgow have expressed an interest in introducing the charge.
But a report by Glasgow City Council shows it is keen to explore a much wider levy.
The study, written in December, recommends that the authority ‘requests the power to deliver nonresidential parking levy (including workplace parking levy) schemes from the Scottish Government’. It adds: ‘It may be that any scheme would have to be considered on a regional basis and/or cover all nonresidential parking, including parking at shopping centres etc, in order to avoid spatial inequality.
‘Legislation that enables nonresidential parking levy could offer local authorities greater flexibility in designing a scheme to take these issues into account.’
Such a move would create huge costs for operators. If introduced at the same £415 rate as Nottingham, Silverburn Shopping Centre, which has 3,409 parking spaces, would face an annual bill of £1.4million, while Glasgow Fort, with 2,500 spaces, would face a £1million hit, and Buchanan Galleries, with 2,000 spaces, would have to pay £830,000. Edward Cooke, of shopping centre trade body Revo, called the proposal ‘merely another tax on business at a time when politicians need to be looking at ways to ensure the UK remains an internationally attractive place to invest’.
Anna Richardson, convener for sustainability and carbon reduction at Glasgow City Council, said: ‘There are benefits to a non-residential parking levy, such as encouraging a switch towards more sustainable transport, a reduction in congestion and emissions, and the creation of funding for major transport improvement schemes.’
She said the authority supported such a scheme ‘in principle’.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We do not support the introduction of a non-residential parking levy. The agreement with the Greens is for a workplace parking levy, not a non-residential parking levy.’