The morning commute can be a major hassle at the best of times. From the early morning wake up to the stress of traffic. It’s a standard way of living as many people commute from surrounding distances. Although, all this commuting into small pocketed areas dampens the air quality, increasing pollution and congestion rates time over time.
This is where the workplace parking levy comes into place. The controversial law is gradually starting to become more and more common in cities across the UK. This law, in particular, concerns the workplace car park.
What is the Workplace Parking Levy?
A workplace parking levy is a form of tax that charges business owners over a set number of parking spaces. In Nottingham, employers who provide more than ten pay £415 to the council for each space. With charges increasing each year for inflation.
Nottingham City Council brought the levy into force back in 2012. Since then it’s generated more then £53 million which has been appropriately invested in public transport — upgrading the railway station and tram networks.
No business wants extra costs upon what they pay already. While the levy rests on employers to pay this to the council, it doesn’t mean that employers can’t charge staff to park.
With eight out of ten companies in Nottingham passing the cost onto employees, it raises the question. What should you as a business do if the levy gets introduced to your area?
Enforcing the workplace parking levy
How would you go about enforcing a car park charge policy?
For small businesses, you may be safe, depending on what the councils’ policy may be. Going back to Nottingham, if you employed less than ten staff, then the parking levy wouldn’t affect you. However, for businesses that come under this rule, you may need to consider your options.
Here are some suggestions you can use if the levy comes into your area:
Update parking policy
Make employees aware ahead of time that the levy is coming into effect. Your workers can then make the informed decision whether to co-opt into a paying for parking or finding alternative travel arrangements.
Suggest Travel Alternatives
If your workers live close by to one another, car-pooling would undoubtedly help reduce the number of car parking spaces being used up. Alternatively, there may be a public transport option that could get them closer to the workplace.
Flexible working
You could offer incentives to your workers in the form of flexible or remote working. This way not only do you avoid the parking charges, but you’d also be offering an attractive option to your employee’s work-life balance.
While you consider your future options, take a step out of the hypothetical and find out about our site management supplies.
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