In the Telegraph today it said that Phillip Hammond had come to some decisions regarding the parking tax levy that has been 
proposed.
Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, is planning new rules which would make it harder for councils to impose a new stealth tax on motorists and businesses without full consultation.
Mr Hammond is ready to step in after the Daily Telegraph disclosed that a number of councils, including Devon, Hampshire, York, Bournemouth, South Somerset and Wiltshire, were examining a levy.
They are considering following the example of Nottingham City Council, which has already announced that it will impose a £250 a year levy for each parking space on employers from 2012, with the figure rising to £350.
Business at times can be tough and slapping a tax on employee parking spaces seems a bit greedy. Employees may park in an employers car park, but they still eat and shop around their workplaces boosting the towns economy. So £250 out of the tills into the coffers of local authorities instead.
Alternatively the employers pay this part of the tax on behalf of the employee, but the employer has no money for rises or incentive bonuses and they can’t expand as the banks are still not lending. That leaves the business a few options and that is moving out of the county that is proposing the taxes into a neighbouring county. The employee now has increased fuel costs and some may even look for new jobs instead.
On the plus side, more people may start to use public transport and that works fine when there are good connections to the place of work, but what about industrial estates? Very few have a bus service or regular transport, although some are near railway stations.
Yes, everyone in the recession is hurting, including local authorities. They need to look back in time and see what happens when you get creative with the taxing… I forget which era had the window tax. Properties were taxed according to the amount of windows that they had and many bricked up their windows in protest.
Then we had the very equal poll tax that annoyed the hell out of everyone and started a few riots.
Now £250 a year may not sound a lot, but with the cost of fuel set to go up (again) it is another burden on already stretched budgets. When the cost of fuel rises, so does the cost of deliveries. The food costs more and there is less to spend (or to save). Something has to give somewhere before the motorists start fighting back, as many seem to have forgotten a war can be resisted by those it is foisted upon.
Let’s hope that Phillip Hammond is on the side of the motorists and that the war on drivers is finally over.
Sarah
