Parking fines and council parking income

How much do councils make from parking?

The RAC Foundation, which analyses the same returns each year, put the 2024-25 surplus at £1.1bn. The RAC Foundation’s figure is based on the 295 councils that had reported at the time, so it is lower than the MHCLG England total for the same year. RAC Foundation.

Which councils have the largest surpluses?

Every council with parking accounts has a page of its own, with its income, spending and surplus for each year published. The largest surpluses:

Figures for the 2025–26 financial year. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government (StatsWales).

In two-tier areas of England, on-street parking belongs to the county and car parks usually to the district, so both appear. Scotland and Wales report parking as one line, without the on-street and off-street split. A negative surplus is a deficit, which the law requires to be made up from the general fund.

Find any council's parking page

All 344 councils and authorities with parking accounts, A to Z. Each page has every year published and, for a council tax area, a link to everything else on the area.

How much is a parking or traffic penalty?

London's levels rose on 7 April 2025 for the first time since 2011. Outside London they are set in regulations and have not changed since the current regulations took effect in May 2022. Private parking charges are demands under contract from private operators, not fines or public money. The £100 cap is set by the industry code; the government code under the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 is not yet in force.

Checked 22 September 2026. Source: legislation.gov.uk and London Councils. Checked by hand 22 September 2026.

What can councils spend it on?

For good governance, enforcement authorities need to forecast revenue in advance. But raising revenue should not be an objective of civil parking enforcement, nor should authorities set targets for revenue or the number of Penalty Charge Notices ( PCNs ) they issue. DfT statutory guidance: civil enforcement of parking contraventions (updated 20 Oct 2022)

The primary purpose of penalty charges is to encourage compliance with traffic restrictions, not for raising revenue. DfT statutory guidance: bus lane and moving traffic enforcement outside London (updated 21 Oct 2022)

Is parking enforcement about traffic or revenue?