The Workplace Parking Levy

Let's ignore for the moment all of the reasons put forward in support of the Workplace Parking Levy and the arguments against it, and concentrate on a single - and very important - question.

Can such such a tax be legally imposed on private land, whether Leasehold or Freehold, that is the property of a business that had planning permission to provide parking for its customers and staff when it entered into a contract to purchase or occupy the land and the buildings thereon, if any?

I am no expert at Conveyancing - in fact I always disliked Conveyancing very much, and my memory of whatever I was once forced to learn of it is therefore extremely vague - but it seems to me that if there were to be a legal right to impose such a tax on land the property of a business, then a legal right to impose the same tax on land the property of private individual would necessarily ensue. That would, of course, result in everyone unfortunate enough not to own a garage having to pay to park their vehicle in their own (already heavily mortgaged!) driveway.

This Levy has been nicely wrapped in 'green', environmentally pleasing phrases, but when one takes off the pretty paper, I fear that one will only find a dangerous little stealth tax lurking in the box.