Levy will not deliver transformative solution

COUNCILLOR Adam Clarke, Leicester’s assistant mayor for environment and transport, has referred to his proposed workplace parking levy (WPL) scheme as an “ambitious” scheme that can “match the huge environmental, health and economic challenges of our times”.

And while it is true that Leicester, like other cities, must adopt a bold and ambitious strategy to tackle the climate emergency, such an approach must be fair and equitable, which the WPL is not.

Instead of using the WPL to nudge car commuters to stop using their cars (by charging them a huge amount of money, £550 a year) the city council should be doing everything in its power to bring together everyone in our city to promote the type of system-changing socialist solutions that will be necessary to match the huge environmental, health and economic challenges of our times.

Here it is important to remember that the city council openly admits that its proposals will only have a limited impact on car use.

Thus, Coun Clarke has said that “we have been able to show” that the council’s “planned first 10-year investment programme, could reduce traffic to similar levels to when schools are on holiday (preCovid).”

As the council notes in its WPL business case report, it hopes that after 10 years their scheme would lead to “a 2 per cent reduction in vehicle traffic”.

Furthermore, the council hopes – if all goes to plan – that the total increase in the number of city bus passengers will be 9 per cent higher by 2029/30 than it was in 2018/19 – which represents a hoped-for growth of 2,500 passengers (from 26,500 to 29,000).

But this growth will hardly be averting the climate emergency as between those same years Leicester’s population is predicted to have increased by 18,000.

In contrast to pushing forward their WPL non-solution, our city’s politicians must set their ambitions far higher if they are serious about delivering transformative change.

That is why the city council should ditch its proposed WPL and work with ordinary people and the trade union movement to develop the type of initiatives that can deliver a huge improvement in public transport.

Our campaign does not pretend that we have all the solutions to dealing with the climate emergency caused by the relentless profiteering of the billionaire class, but we understand that imposing another regressive tax on workers is a definite nonstarter.

That is why we think that a good place to look for green solutions lies within the trade union movement itself, and most particularly within the excellent pamphlet Climate Jobs: Building a Workforce for the Climate Emergency (2021) which can be read online at:

cacctu.org.uk Michael Barker, Campaign Against Leicester’s Workplace Parking Levy