Tim Worstall

Paying for Car Parking

This looks a little odd, don’t you think?

Under the plans, councils would be given the power to demand that big
supermarkets and other stores on the outskirts of towns charge their
customers for parking.
…
The policy review group, which was co-chaired by Zac Goldsmith, the
millionaire environmental campaigner, and John Gummer, the former Tory
environment secretary, added that the money raised by the new charges
would be used by the local authority to fund improved public transport.

So, if people park on private land, the owner must charge them and then hand the money over to the local council? That is what is being suggested here, isn’t it?

Is it possible that Mssrs. Gummer and Goldsmith are not quite au fait with the Tory Party’s traditional belief in private property rights?

The The Boy Dave (C) says:

Mr Cameron argued that a new approach was needed after a decade during
which "the poorest in our society have got poorer … social mobility is
falling.

Social mobility may well be falling, but the poorest are not getting poorer. They’re not getting richer as fast as the rich are, to be sure, but their absolute level of living is not falling.

The report will also argue that local communities should be given more
powers to resist plans for big superstores in order to defend local
shops.

So we’ll protect expensive and inefficient producers at the expense of the consumer.

There are times when The Stupid Party seems all too appropriate.

In

9 responses

  1. JuliaM Avatar
    JuliaM

    “There are times when The Stupid Party seems all too appropriate.”
    And those occasions are growing exponentially now The Boy Dave is in charge…

    Reply
  2. Mark Wadsworth Avatar
    Mark Wadsworth

    Twats, frankly, what they should do is charge the supermarkets more land value tax on the land used for car parking. As long as the tax is less than the value of the extra customers that the supermarket gets, it’s still a win-win.

    Reply
  3. Jim the lurker Avatar
    Jim the lurker

    An easier way would to be charge non-domestic rates on car parking. This is not (i think) currently done and is/was a big bone of contention for smaller businesses.

    Reply
  4. Philip Thomas Avatar
    Philip Thomas

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I hate my party.

    Reply
  5. Helen Avatar
    Helen

    There are problems with planning and supermarkets and those need to be solved. Actually, there are problems with planning.
    That said, one reason why the “poor”, which, presumably means everyone poorer than little Zac, can have a decent standard of living is because of supermarkets. As for no social mobility – would that have anything to do with the rubbish education we have in this country?The one that the Tories have no desire to change?

    Reply
  6. Roger Thornhill Avatar
    Roger Thornhill

    The word you are groping for is “Communism”.
    Such “ideas” are so utterly LUNATIC as to make one seriously question the rational thinking and critical reasoning of those who make such suggestions.

    Reply
  7. Ian Bennett Avatar
    Ian Bennett

    “The report will also argue that local communities should be given more powers to resist plans for big superstores in order to defend local shops.”
    Local communities already have that power; they wield it by using the local shops instead of the big superstores. If sufficient consumers prefer Grocer Jack’s personal service to Tesco’s low prices, Tesco would close, and Jack would prosper.
    “what they should do is charge the supermarkets more land value tax on the land used for car parking.”
    And guess who ends up paying for it? It certainly won’t come out of the supermarket’s profits.
    Either way, using revenue extorted from car users to subsidise bus users is, as always, absolutely unjustifiable.
    What they should do is to shut the fuck up and keep their grubby little hands in their own pockets.
    What the hell has happened to the Conservative Party? I despair.

    Reply
  8. Mark Wadsworth Avatar
    Mark Wadsworth

    “And guess who ends up paying for [the land value tax]? It certainly won’t come out of the supermarket’s profits.”
    Theory and practice shows that land value tax is the most difficult to pass on; the burden fall almost entirely on the landowner.

    Reply
  9. 6th Column Avatar
    6th Column

    Any increase in overhead can be passed on to the consumer simply by increasing gross margin. How is land value tax any different?

    Reply

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