Nottingham workplace parking levy

A workplace parking levy (WPL) is a tax levied on employers with more than 10 employees for providing on-site staff parking spaces. The tax is enacted by the local authority to cover a given area, and the cost can be passed on to employees. As such, the WPL is a lever aimed at increasing the use costs of commuting by car whilst simultaneously raising money for local transport schemes.

Nottingham’s WPL was introduced in 2011 to help finance an extension to the city’s tram network and upgrades to its central train station. The consensus among businesses about the need for these improvement schemes supported the city council in introducing the politically contentious WPL. In the first 10 years of the scheme, the WPL raised £90 million for the council, and the reinvestment of these funds also enabled a further £1 billion of inward investment in transport. ⁵⁵ Along with the tram and train station improvements, this funding has allowed the council to introduce 18 km of new bus lanes and offer grants to employers to encourage sustainable transport in their workplaces.

“We looked at all the options, raising council tax, raising business rates, European grants, everything. But none of them really fitted the bill. The levy was the ideal vehicle to do that.”

Nottingham City Council officer

Yet despite Nottingham’s success, no other local authority has introduced a WPL. Several London boroughs have explored this option but have encountered difficulty in establishing how much workplace parking exists in their borough and so struggled to evaluate the benefit of introducing such a scheme. Relatively low political will, concerns about implementation costs and the impact of the pandemic on working patterns have all contributed to many consultations being paused.

Mobility credits

Mobility credits consist of schemes providing people with credits to spend on sustainable or active transport modes, such as public or shared transport. Since 2021, mobility credits have been given to Coventry residents who scrap a heavily polluting car.

TfL also explored the possibility of mobility credits as an alternative to the grant payments made as part of the scrappage scheme, but focus groups with eligible applicants revealed that grant payments were the preferred option.

However, whilst payment grants offer flexibility for applicants, they don’t encourage modal shift in the same way as mobility credits do.

Low-cost public transport passes

Between June and August of 2022, Germany trialled a ticket that gave unlimited regional rail travel for a cost of nine euros per month. The aim of this scheme was not only to make public transport cheaper for people to access, but also to combat a notoriously complicated ticketing system.

The scheme was predominantly perceived to be a success. It attracted more people to travel by rail, with 20 per cent of ticket purchases coming from entirely new customers and a further 27 per cent from existing customers who previously used public transport less than once a month.

Whilst the pass did simplify the ticketing system, most customers stated that the low price was their reason for purchasing when surveyed by the VDV. ⁵⁶ However, this was a more common response among existing customers (76 per cent) than new customers (56 per cent). Nonetheless, the nine-euro ticket was found to encourage a modal shift among customers, with one in 10 journeys using the pass replacing a car journey. As a result, the scheme was estimated to have prevented 1.8 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions. But the increased demand on the rail network because of the scheme exposed issues such as overcrowding and delays in Germany’s rail system.

The scheme was only ever intended to last three months, and despite its many successes, it was not extended. The flaws in the rail system exposed by the increased demand reinforced the need for more investment in Germany’s rail infrastructure and so it was not possible to continue subsidising the low cost of the ticket. Instead, a 49 euros per month ticket was launched in spring 2023.