Motorists face £1,000-a-year tax for driving to work as council call for firms to pay for parking spaces

MOTORISTS could face charges of up to £1,000 per year thanks to a city hall green blitz.

Companies could be taxed for parking bays under new plans – with motor groups fearing the costs could be passed on to workers.

GettyMotor groups blasted it as a ‘poll tax on wheels’[/caption]

According to the Mail on Sunday, “workplace parking levels” are being considered in towns and cities across England to cut down on congestion.

In Nottingham, where the scheme is already in place, more than half of the costs are said to have been passed onto staff.

Council bosses say they could reduce traffic and pollution, while boosting finances for other projects.

But the AA slammed the proposals as a “poll tax on wheels”.

The motoring association warned the charges would “raid worker’s pay packets”.

The RAC said the costs amounts to “a tax on going to work,” while other motor groups pointed out firms’ parking is already effectively taxed under business rates thanks to the value they add to the premises.

Schemes are now said to be being considered for Birmingham, Brighton, Warrington, Bath, Luton, Norwich, Colchester, Cambridge, Leicester, Oxford, Bristol and the London boroughs of Hounslow and Camden.

Cambridge and Hounslow could charge the most – up to £1,000, it is reported.

Meanwhile, Leicester City Council is reportedly considering a £500 levy, and Bristol a £400 charge.

A spokesperson for the AA said: “The levy is really just a poll tax on wheels that not only raids workers’ pay packets, while trying to place the blame on employers, but hits the lower-paid hardest.”

A spokesperson for the RAC said: “The cost will almost certainly be passed down to workers, so in effect it becomes a tax on a person going to work.”

A report by the Greater Cambridge Partnership said charging £1,000 per space could generate £13 million a year.

The London Borough of Hounslow estimated their charge could raise between £44million and £95million over 25 years.

Leicester City Council estimated it could generate £95 million over a decade.