UK drivers stung for £5B in parking fines, and it's getting worse

It seems the UK Government’s five-year-old plan to rein in "cowboy" parking firms has gone about as smoothly as a roundabout on a Monday morning. New research reveals that since 2019, drivers in Britain have forked over nearly £5 billion in parking fines, all while private parking companies are rubbing their hands together like cartoon villains. According to data uncovered by The Mail recently, these private parking firms have issued a jaw-dropping £4.

8 billion in fines since the government vowed to crack down on their aggressive tactics. Back then, Parliament passed a law with the intent of stopping these companies from using what many saw as extortionist methods to drain the wallets of drivers. You’d think that would be the end of the story, but, alas, five years later, the fines are still rolling in – and at an alarming rate.



Parking a car is getting difficult and expensive: If you thought parking your car would only cost a bit of loose change, think again. Private parking companies are on track to issue 13 million fines this year alone, which works out to more than 35,000 tickets a day . Yes, you read that right.

That’s about the population of a small town getting a fine every single day for the privilege of trying to find a parking spot. And here’s the kicker: while the rest of us are counting pennies to pay for that overpriced city parking, these parking firms are seeing their profits skyrocket. In fact, some of them are set to double their profits this year.

Not too shabby, right? But how is this happening? Well, they can slap higher fines on drivers than the government or council-run parking areas. It’s a license to print money, it seems. The 2019 law promised to put an end to this madness, introducing a code of practice designed to standardise the rules and make everything a bit fairer.

The plan was to cap fines at a maximum of £50, ensure better signage, and create a more transparent appeals system. In theory, it was a great idea. In practice? Not so much.

The code was swiftly thrown out the window after parking firms pushed back, delaying any real progress..