Parking: Urban Areas

(asked on 15th June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the impact of parking costs on footfall in town centres.


Answered by
Neil O'Brien Portrait
Neil O'Brien
This question was answered on 24th June 2022

My department is aware of the important link between parking provision and the vitality of our high streets and town centres, especially where transport infrastructure does not allow citizens to use public transport. We know that parking costs may have an impact on whether citizens decide to drive to town centres, but these also need to be balanced against other factors like the availability of adequate accessible parking and attractive alternatives to driving.

My department is currently developing a new, consolidated Code of Practice for the private parking industry which will raise standards and stop unfair practices in the private parking sector. This includes considering the right level of charges for motorists who have fallen foul of parking restrictions.

Furthermore, in the Build Back Better High Streets Strategy, we also committed to consider how we can further improve local authority parking to make high streets more accessible to shoppers, including working with councils to ensure that parking space supply and parking tariffs support high streets strategies, and are joined up with local transport plans.

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