The Scottish Conservatives will this week make a last-ditch bid to halt controversial SNP plans to introduce uncapped workplace parking levies from next month.
In an effort to prevent the “punishing” tax, the Party will bring a debate on the levy to parliament on Wednesday – arguing that the scheme is a “tax on drivers”, which will fail to produce any environmental impact.
Shadow Transport Minister, Graham Simpson will also bring a vote to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee today (Tuesday), to halt legislation that is due to bring the scheme into force next Friday.
The new scheme will give councils unlimited powers to set the rate of levies imposed on businesses and staff for workplace parking – leading to fears that employers and workers could be hit by punitive charges.
The plans have been widely condemned by Scotland’s business community. The Scottish Retail Consortium labelled the tax a “recipe for extra cost and complexity”, while the Scottish Chambers of Commerce said businesses were concerned local authorities would use the levy as a “revenue stream, rather than for purely environmental reasons”.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Transport Minister, Graham Simpson MSP said: “The Scottish Conservatives will do everything we can to halt this punishing new tax.
“Scottish businesses and their hardworking staff are dreading the introduction of this unfair scheme – and many are wondering how they are going to cope with the potentially exorbitant charges.
“As long as the SNP continue to fail to provide Scotland with a public transport system that is affordable and fit-for-purpose, punitive measures like this will have no environmental benefit.
“Instead, this senseless tax will hit businesses and workers hard, slap bang in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and our recovery from the pandemic.
“Scots can see right through the SNP’s bluster – this is nothing more than a money-making scheme to help shore up holes in the SNP Government’s inadequate local council funding.
“But it’s not too late to reverse these plans. I urge the SNP to listen to the outcry on all sides and scrap this irresponsible tax before businesses and working Scots bear the brunt.”
Notes:
The Scottish Chamber of Commerce have criticised the workplace levy scheme for the ‘additional financial burden’ it is likely to place on businesses and employees. Dr Liz Cameron, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce said: “Scotland’s businesses have consistently opposed the introduction of the Workplace Parking Levy in Scotland due to the additional financial burden it places on businesses and their employees. Businesses are still recovering from the financial impact of the pandemic, which has severely reduced trade and significantly increased costs over the past two years, hitting our town and city centres hard. By failing to impose a cap on charges, businesses across Scotland will now face a postcode lottery and some difficult decisions at a critical point in their recovery. Many businesses are concerned that local authorities, whose budgets are already stretched, may now seek to implement this levy as a revenue stream rather than for purely environmental reasons” (Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce, 8 February 2022, link).
The Scottish Retail Consortium has also criticised the scheme in submissions to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport committee. Director of the SRC, David Lonsdale said: “We remain concerned that workplace parking levies remain a recipe for extra cost and complexity. This is especially so as firms already pay business rates on the parking places they provide for staff, and so could be taxed twice for such parking spaces. This may lead some employers to consider whether they ought to recoup some or all of the cost of the levy from staff, so this policy could well have a bearing on the cost of living and/or the ability of employers to retain or recruit staff.” (Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee Evidence session on the Workplace Parking Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2022, 22 February 2022, link).