Living in a desirable location has huge benefits. It provides a quieter, more peaceful lifestyle, especially compared with the hustle and bustle of a city. Its aesthetic appeal can also profoundly impact its residents’ mood and overall well-being.
However, there can also be some rather expensive downsides. A new analysis of data from councils by Churchill Motor Insurance has revealed steep and wildly inconsistent costs for residents’s parking permits across the UK. In one picturesque borough in London, locals are now paying up to £1,073 a year just to park outside their own homes, while those in other cities pay nothing at all.
The average cost of a 12-month resident’s parking permit in towns and cities across the UK is now £128. However, the London Borough of Islington, , which counts Boris Johnson as a former resident, charges its residents up to £1,073 to park outside their own home, making it the most expensive place in the UK to park outside your house.
In Islington, £1,073.60 is the eye-watering cost for a diesel car with an engine over 2751cc or emissions over 256g/km. The lowest cost for an electric car is £111.70, according to the motor insurance company, which looked at 100 councils.
Whilst London boroughs have some of the most expensive residents’s parking costs, Edinburgh, Brighton and Glasgow are all amongst the top ten priciest.
Just seven – including Manchester City Council, Leeds City Council, Swansea Council and Nottingham City Council – either do not have a residents’s parking scheme, or do but do not charge, at least for the first car registered.
The research reveals that the emissions-based tiering system “penalises owners of older and diesel cars, while letting new large electric vehicles park for a fraction of the cost,” Churchill Motor Insurance argued.
There is “no national standard for emissions bands, so what’s considered a ‘high polluting’ car in one city is ‘mid-range’ in another,” they added.
Rather than basing the cost of parking on the size of the car, most councils tier the cost of residents’ parking based on the cars’s emissions. This means owners of smaller, older, and diesel cars will pay far more than those who drive a large 4×4 electric car.
“Councils are increasingly targeting those with older, more polluting or non-EVS with higher charges,” while “additional costs for families with more than one car and a bureaucratic application process […] is especially tough on company car drivers and disabled residents”.
Nicholas Mantel, Head of Churchill Motor Insurance, said: “Residents’s parking schemes are now widespread in towns and cities across the UK. However, every council has taken a different approach, meaning that what might be considered a high emissions car by one council, isn’t in the next.
“Overall, residents with older and more polluting cars are typically paying far more than those with more modern cars and EVs, regardless of how much room the cars take up when parked.”
The Express contacted Islington Council and Cllr Rowena Champion, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Environment, Air Quality and Transport, said: “We want a greener, healthier Islington and are strongly committed to tackling the climate emergency. We have worked hard to show leadership in our ambitious transport policies that aim to reduce vehicle use and promote active travel.
“Our emission-based parking
“These policies support our broader environmental commitments and our ambition to make Islington a greener, healthier place. The latest data shows that this work has contributed to an overall decrease in the borough’s emissions of 20% since our 2018 baseline, and in the last 12 months we have seen a 12% drop in the number of permits sold for the most-polluting vehicles, and a 4% drop in permit purchases overall.”
Cllr Champion added that Islington has one of the lowest levels of car ownership in London and the blanket surcharge on all diesel vehicles has been in place for the last 10 years. The introduction of people-friendly streets, School Streets and cycleways have helped encourage local people, where possible, to switch from using motor vehicles to instead using public transport, walking, or cycling.
The council said it is committed to continuing to support disabled people and those who are unable to switch from using a motor vehicle. A number of concessions remain in place, including for Blue Badge holders – who are given free resident parking permits – over 60s, Disability Living Allowance claimants, and Employment Support Allowance.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
