Charting commercial routes to parking fees

Now more than ever councils are seeking to maximise their income from fees and charges to help balance the books.

But how can income be increased when people are in the midst of a cost of living crisis and the council’s net zero strategy actively discourages city centre parking? And how should the council adapt its approach in the face of private sector competition?

To help authorities answer these challenging questions, the Local Government Association commissioned Local Partnerships’ data analytics team to develop an innovative and scalable approach to identify and assess commercial opportunities.

Using city centre parking services as a test case, we have worked with three city councils to provide tactical and strategic suggestions to improve commercial benefit while remaining aligned to broader political and strategic policy objectives around net zero and inclusive growth.

We found that for the councils in scope, compared with the private sector, public sector car parks score lower on quality aspects such as safety features, electric vehicle (EV) charging and toilets. However, private sector parking is typically 50% to 200% more expensive.

This suggests councils could increase surpluses by increasing fees in return for improving the quality of the estate. Additionally, incremental income opportunities with regard to EV charging, advertising and solar panels might be available.

In the longer term, net zero and inclusive growth policies will likely reduce parking demand within the city centre, requiring a change of commercial approach to retaining overall surplus levels. This might therefore be by investing in out-of-centre parking, offering a smaller but higher value city centre parking offer, redeveloping the city centre estate or a combination of these.

By focusing on commercial opportunities instead of simply fee levels, Local Partnerships has been able to propose practical ways for councils to increase the commercial return of their parking services.

If you would like to increase revenues at your council, or talk about different aspects of commercial activity, we would be delighted to assist.

Please get in contact with Joran Mendel.