Workplace Parking Levy will go ahead under Tories

Well said Lorraine
With all the taxes imposed, speed cameras, poor state of the roads etc, driving is not a pleasure, but a necessity of modern life. Incidentally, due to the bad winter, the roads have fallen in to their worst state of disrepair in 30 years, and the government are saying there is insufficient funding to bring them up to an acceptable state. Yet due to the recent 2½ % increase in VAT, the extra revenue that will be brought in on fuel duty alone, would pay for all the road repairs needed in 100 days! Just goes to show how much the average driver pays now.

Gary.....people would make an informed opinion on the facts available if the facts were consistent and proven! We hear different things every day about climate change and how we can do something about it, and I think to a large extent we all do, we recycle, we buy goods that are more effecient, based on someones view that it will help the environment, for all we know if could be some very clever marketing ploy to update all your household goods!

You don't know if our cars are changing our future, the same as you don't know whether you would get cancer from inhaling someone elses cigarette smoke.

This thread was about the parking taxation on UK businesses which could be passed on to the employee, therefore another indirect way of getting to the UK tax payers. The government should be more worried about the people that aren't paying tax and leave the already struggling employee alone!!!!!! If I want to drive my car - I will......I earn that priviledge, I bought the car, paid the VAT, then I pay road and fuel tax so as Gareth says when they have a "economic car" that looks good, then maybe I will use it??

on the subject of alcohol, it is your choice what you drink, but ishould not have to suffer the violence or hangover associated wtih excess,
smoking, is your choice to poison yourself, but not me through passive smoking,
where your car use puts the future of my existance at risk, i maintain my right to an opinion.
presonally, i drive a classic mini, and for no other reason than it makes me smile when i visit clients and 6foot 3 bloke gets out of a small box on wheels,
each to his own, and there will always be differences of opinion, freedom of choice should not involve being conned into thinking everything is ok. make an informed opinion on the facts available.

I would welcome a viable alternative to burning fossil fuels, particularly if it saved me money. But until electric cars (is the electricity not generated by burning fossil fuels in the most part?) stop looking like something out of a cartoon, can be driven to and from work without running out of power 1/2 way home, and don't take all week to get to anything other than snails pace (the "reliable" Toyota Prius, and the £100,000 Teslar excluded) I'll stick to my BMW thanks.
With regards to alcohol, smoking etc (I don’t smoke or drink excessively) I seem to remember something called freedom of choice (as opposed to Orwell’s vision of the future in 1984).

I think all of the above comments are worth reading, but the people who need to know are the MP's. Where are they getting their information from? I hope it is not another MP! The public do need a voice, so they are aware of the general opinion and not individuals or companies who will suffer, I would suffer if the tax was passed on to the employee. One voice needs to be made up of tens of thousands of people, so the MP's know what we would vote with the ballot box.

Molly, i understand your concern at my comments, but do not agree that keeping the car industry alive unnaturally by massaging figures, subsidising the natural process of decline is the right way to proceed.
the issue of smoking in the UK supporting the NHS is a joke.
we continue to allow a substance that is linked to thousands of deaths and serious diseases to be freely available because the people who own these companies have money and power. i may be being idealistic, but i am looking at the future, a generation from now.
there have been many stories over the years of research projects being taken over and buried, that have looked at making petrol and diesel power obsolete; these projects would not be in the best interests of the oil companies.
are our oil reserves running out, possibly not, but should wee be looking for more fossil fuels, or looking at ways of harnessing other fuels, levying is a government process of raising funds to support the infrastrucutre that we have come to know and love.
the British Government is bankrupt, but not just in money, but morals, big industry buys its place in power, and we as consumers love to spend money we dont have, then complain when the banks do the same.
this debate started by looking at the facts of parking levvies against people going to work in the UK.
whether it is a Labour, Tory or BNP council, the matter remains that it is a tax, to try and discourage people to use their cars, and certain people cannot get away from using their cars because there is not a viable alternative.
public transport, car sharing, bike to work and maybe other ideas are all alternatives that some can adopt, but wont, and others will not give up their cars no matter what.
my point is and always will be, we all have a choice. sometimes it is a small band of focused crackpot individuals that change the world.........the rest of us just go along with it.

It's quite ironic, that the carbon footprint, of the delegates attending the recent global warming conference in Copenhagen, was equal to the carbon footprint for a small country. Couldn't the same outcome have been achieved by videoconferencing? This would have been cheaper, easier, quicker and greener, but of course would not have resulted in a nice little jolly away from parliament and the accompanying expense claims.

The Earth is in a Carbon deficit today, there is less CO2 in the atmosphere that at nearly any other time in Earths history. The recent rise in CO2 has benefited us by longer life spans and better crop yields. Humans are responsible for 0.002% of all CO2 produced.

The report linking human activity to global warming was based on a paper that has since been discredited due to no scientific basis or verifiable research.

Hello

If the tree huggers have done one good thing it is top raise awareness of an issue.
It still is not not proven that man is causing this particular cycle of warming (it seems to be cyclical)but governments have seen that they can tax us on it so it is in their interests to make it appear man made.


Regards

Barry

How v ery silly to say let the car industry die a death! I work for the charitable motor and allied trades benevolent fund who provide care and welfare for those who have or do still work in the trade. We rely on donations from the car industry and we could not survive without their support. ots of people need care homes, welfare support and a caring person to talk to so let's talk sense about this.

Unfortunately only when public transport becomes as convenient as cars will this change. I agree with you Gary but feel that this is a very long term project that could take generations to turn round.

perhaps rather than bolstering the need for new cars by massively subsidising the new car market, scrappage schemes, and shoring up the failing car manufacturing market, we let it die a natural death, less cars on the road, plough money into developing cleaner technology/public transport/flexible working/ working from home etc and stop the migration mentality we have adopted.
every day, hundreds and thousands of people pass someone going to work in the town they have just left, going to work in the town they live in, in the same type of job for the same money that they work at, and that makes sense how?
yes it will mean unemployment, retraining, new ways of doing things, but it is due to institutional cowardice that these things rumble on with the attitude'what can you do''we've always done it that way'' it wont work, we tried it'
too many politicians promise to address the environmental issue, but fail to see the bigger picture.
many of the loony-tunes,crack-pot tree people have now been proved to be right, we may not be in iminent risk of sliding into the sea today, but to stick our heads in the sand and say its not happened so far, its obviously not as bad as all that is again sweeping it under the carpet.
i dont have all the answers, i dont think anyone has, but trying to do a bit of green stuff now and again just doesnt do it..................we have to start being responsible on every level, eveyone must be accountable, environmental should be part and parcel of life, just like Health and Safety is now.
the principles of reducing the amount of vehicles on the road is sound, and i have three cars................

"I am sure that you and I will remain in the minority until the next bandwagon arrives"

Nah! I think there are many here (like myself) who do not work the hours or the place that meet the criteria of 'public' (privately owned subsidised asset strippers more like) transport companies, or the government worker farms, sorry, I meant city suburbs.

Now James, go on, into the corner and face the wall... tut, tut!

I'm surprised at James' response I must say. Public transport is nowhere near good enough for a large percentage of the working/driving population to give up using the car for work. I sit on our firm's environmental committee and am passionate about reducing our environmental impact but with realistic objectives.

Public transport must be massively improved BEFORE any further taxation on motorists. It is scandalous that once again drivers are expected to cover the cost of improving public transport infrastructure because the funds already raised through taxation against motorists are so poorly mismanaged; by both local and central government, that public transport doesn't work as well as it should.

I refuse to believe that the massive tax revenue generated on fuel, road fund license, fines, congestion charge, parking etc etc could not supply us with an acceptable public transport system in the right hands.

Who will administer this completely unnecessary new taxation policy and how will it be funded? Could it be through the charges being proposed, which will take up most of the new revenue anyway making it virtually pointless.
Jobs for the boys!

Hello

I agree that all forms of transport have a place in the scheme of things.

Barry

Gareth,

I am sure that you and I will remain in the minority until the next bandwagon arrives.

The current fashion is to blame car drivers for everything including the weather, the recession and the breakdown of society but I am sure that campaigners will soon turn their attention towards a new trendy target, trying to convince the well meaning majority that ‘the end of the world is nigh’.

Since my childhood there has always been another apocalypse just around the corner. We were about to be blown up in a nuclear firestorm, killed by disease, famine, drought, phone masts or the ozone layer disintegrating. Oil was supposed to run out 10 years ago (it didn’t), the Seychelles were due to disappear underwater 5 years ago (they are still there and thriving) and don’t even mention the Millennium Bug!

Still, if a great catastrophe were to wipe out the human race, it would save us from the impending obesity / dementia / over-population time bombs....

Even recently I don’t know whether to run to the hills to avoid rising sea levels or hide underground to survive the impending asteroid strike. We should already have suffered death from smallpox, AIDS, SARS, bird flu, swine flu and any other impending pandemics if you listen to the preachers of any number of end of the world scenarios.

The end of the world wasn’t caused by any of these, and I am sure that the use of cars will not lead to the destruction of the planet either. But when that doesn’t happen I am sure that some new ‘crisis’ will come along to instil guilt and frighten everyone to death.

In my naivety I used to think that maybe some of these people were misguided, and that human nature is to seek comfort in a crisis, but as you hint at – there is money to be made in doom and gloom. Or as the Sex Pistols put it, cash from chaos.

Thanks Mark, it's nice to see someone with a bit of sense discuss public transport objectively, rather that the "fashionable", mis-guided, eco-warrior types.
When you consider that the basis of blaming global warming on industry and cars, is based on a paper from an ex-train driver that has since been discredited due to no scientific basis or verifiable research (the writer has now apologised but not before he spent the £2.5m research grant), it does annoy when the eco-sheep want to find any way to make it difficult for drivers, on the basis that they cause all the woes of the word.

The typical eco-mentalist’s view that we only use our cars as opposed to public transport through choice is getting a little irritating. For many it is absolutely essential, for reasons of geography, times of work, lack of decent public transport, or having a boot full of gear that you need to take with you.

As Gareth points out, in many (many, many) cases, use of public transport is just not feasible. Public transport is simply not good enough, reliable enough and doesn’t go where you need it to go to make it a realistic option.

I am sure that living close to your workplace has many advantages, but in reality for most people life just isn’t like that. Can you imagine choosing to work at a location based on the public transport timetable? Franchises are lost, contracts change hands, timetables change and services are cancelled.

My work takes me around the country, and occasionally where it is convenient, I will use public transport. However, it hardly ever is convenient. Even in London, where the public transport system is outstanding, I often need to drive to locations as my car is my office, containing essential gear that just can’t be manually carried on public transport.

Should I or my employer be penalised because of this? Between us we pay car tax, tax on the fuel, vat on the tax on the fuel, congestion charges, business rates, service charges and I am sure others that don’t spring readily to mind. And now a parking levy?

Also, please remember, during any of the recent spells of inclement weather, public transport was cancelled at the drop of a hat. This is really inconvenient if you are trying to get to work, and REALLY INCONVENIENT if you are already there when the cancellation occurs. Miles away from home, knee deep in snow and no way to get home? Not for me I’m afraid.

Sorry James, but people who live in parts of the country with good accesible transport links are lucky, the rest of us are pretty much forced to drive to work. I did not choose to work 17 miles from home just for the fun of driving over 8000 miles a year, but as there were no suitable jobs where I live had to follow the governments advice and look further afield. My employer, an engineering company, can't produce in the town centre, so has to manufacture on the outskirts. I live the other side of town from the station, and it is not possible to catch a bus from home,to work, without changing several times (particularly as i work and live in different counties). All this makes the use of the poor public transport links in our area unfeasible. I would love to be able to walk/cycle to work and save a packet on fuel costs etc but can't. People who expect us all to use public transport should give it a try where I live and work before passing judgment!

Gareth - please don't berate Alex's sensible idea. Its not his fault that your employer chooses to have their office not in a city centre, but in the outskirts.

I wholeheartedly support this proposal - I will be interested to see in practice how this is treated. I see three ways:
-employer absorbs in full
-employer passes to employee in full
-employer is told by HMRC to treat the provision of parking as a benefit in kind.

at least their should be plenty of room in first class now the MPs wont be using it........................
could it be for one of these and many other UK employment condition changes which has brought the UK manufacturing industry to its knees, being unable to compete in the global market?
maybe TATA CORUS see this looming and think now is the time to pull the plug, Holland encourage everyone to cycle as its so flat, and India can pretty much do as it likes in relation to employee rights.............

Good idea Alex, as someone who lives 17 miles from work, with no direct bus route, it will be a doddle, getting up at 4.00 in the morning to walk over a mile to the station (no bus running at that time) journey to the station closest to work and then walk the 2 miles from the station to the industrial eastate where I work (again no bus) so I can get to work on time, and you or the MP who has come up with this idea can feel free to join me any cold, wet, snowy day and see if you or they still think leaving the car at home is a good idea!

Or perhaps leave the car at home and travel by bus or train, thus getting rid of the need for a parking space and the "tax".

Seemples...

It is hardly surprising that the Conservatives have retreated on their promise to bar such a tax. It was Margaret Thatcher who first proposed this in the 1980s, as a 'benefit in kind' to be applied through the PAYE system. She was forced to abandon this by the weight of public and political opposiiton. Leaving it to Local Authorities conveniently introduces the same tax but through the back door, leaving LAs to take the flack. What's new in politics!

Peter Edwards

How will this legislation work? Can a company simply "contract out" it's parking requirements? How does it apply to government buildings eg the MOD where I work empoys circa 800 people, some of whom live on site.

Yet another way to hit the motorist apart from extortionate fuel and running costs,should we all encourage (if possible ) certain members of our staff to work from home?....Or ultimately move our businesses abroad to escape stupid charges