Parking tax ‘will hurt those on low incomes’

Workers in Scotland hit by a proposed new workplace parking levy could face the equivalent of a 10p income tax hike, MSPS have heard.

Scottish Conservative deputy leader Jackson Carlaw claimed that people have been left “alarmed” by the proposal, which was at the heart of the Scottish Government’s budget deal with the Greens last week.

However, the claims were played down by Deputy First Minister John Swinney, who said the proposal will only allow councils the power to introduce the tax, but there is no need to do so.

Mr Carlaw told MSPS at First Minister’s Questions that he had been hearing from “deeply alarmed ordinary Scots” over the impact of the proposed new tax on workplace parking. He read out a letter from an apprentice in South Lanarkshire who claimed the potential outlay of £2 a day from his wage would be “a lot”.

“This is a tax that will hit the lowest and least represented employment groups in the country,” Mr Carlaw said.

The Tories also carried out their own calculations on the potential impact of the levy.

He said: “A £400 annual charge would be equivalent to increasing the basic rate of a tax paid to a worker on the real living wage from 20p in the pound to 30p in the pound.

“Can the Deputy First Minister tell us, when he promised not to increase the basic rate of income tax before the last election, did he imagine he would be voting to thump those same workers with a new levy equivalent to a tax hike of 10p in the pound?”

But Mr Swinney said the 0 Jackson Carlaw said people were ‘alarmed’ at the proposal

government were forced into reaching a deal with the Greens because the Tories were “spectacularly absent” from talks.

And he said the plans will only enable councils to “exercise a judgement about whether they want to introduce the levy”. He said: “It will be up to local authorities to take that decision [to impose the levy]. It is an example of localism in practice and I would’ve thought the Conservatives would have welcomed that.”

He told MSPS that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had received a letter from four Tory MSPS – including Mr Carlaw – which urged the Scottish Government to “empower” local councils.

Green MSP Andy Wightman said: “The powers to introduce a workplace parking levy exist in England. They were introduced by a Labour government, and the Nottingham scheme was implemented by a Labour council. The Liberal Democrats supported such powers in the Scottish Parliament in 2000.

“Both these parties appear to be more interested in partisan political point-scoring than in working together to tackle pollution, reduce congestion and empower local government.”