NHS parking: the hospitals that make the most money from staff car park fees as Government ends free scheme

NHS workers in England will soon have to pay to park their cars at work again, with hospitals in line to start making up to £90 million per year in parking fees.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has announced that temporary free parking for NHS staff – introduced in March 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic – would end on Friday (1 April).

NHS Digital data shows English hospital trusts made £90.1 million from staff parking charges in the year to March 2020, with one trust alone raking in £3.2 million.

Income had risen dramatically over recent years, with trusts reporting earnings of £69.5 million in 2017-18, the first year with available data.

The figures cover parking charges and fines levied against staff, even if a third party company collects the money on the trust’s behalf.

The Government first announced in March 2020 that it would cover hospitals’ costs for providing free car parking to NHS staff working in hospitals “during this unprecedented time”.

While individual trusts are responsible for setting their car parking charges, the Government said it urged “all trusts to immediately make use of government funding to abolish parking charges for their staff during the Covid-19 pandemic”.

However, NHS Digital figures for 2020-21 show some trusts continued recording income from staff parking, with 71 hospitals reporting income of £5.3 million off the backs of staff during the year.

It is not clear whether these trusts continued charging staff to park during the pandemic, or if the total includes fees for parking permits or other levies issued in the previous year but collected in 2020-21.

In 2019-20, 159 trusts made money from staff car parking.

Which trusts charge staff the most for parking?

The trusts that continued to report staff parking income after March 2020 include many large acute hospital trusts, where staff will have been under intense pressure at the peak of the Covid pandemic.

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust reported the greatest earnings in 2020-21, at £904,434.

It was followed by North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust (£705,293), Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust (£419,276) and South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust (£394,000).

Pre-pandemic, the biggest earners in 2019-20 were Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (£3.2 million), University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust (£2.2 million), Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (£2.1 million) and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust (£1.9 million).

You can find out the total earnings from staff car parking for 2019-20 and 2020-21 at your local NHS trust below.

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