Burnham vows end to 'rip-off parking charges' under new rules

Drivers will be given the right to challenge "rip-off" private parking charges and more grace when using private providers under new rules set out by Andy Burnham.

The prime minister announced the changes after concerns were raised that penalties issued by private providers were too harsh and left motorists unfairly punished.

The new rules include a cancellation of charges for honest mistakes such as stopping to check directions and for non-payment due to broken ticket machines. Drivers will also get a 10-minute window to leave a car park without facing a penalty.

Motoring groups welcomed the changes, but said more needed to be done to stop charges when the driver had done nothing wrong.

Private car parks are different to council-owned car parks and streets, but more tickets at private sites are now being issued than ever recorded.

According to RAC analysis of government data, some 17 million private parking tickets were issued in 2025-26, a 17% increase from a year earlier.

With each charge worth up to £100, the data suggests drivers could collectively face private parking charges worth more than £4.6m each day.

In one case, a woman was taken to court in a £1,906 claim after taking longer than five minutes to pay at a car park in Derby . The charge was eventually dropped .

"Being a few minutes late back to your car or typing one digit of your number plate wrong shouldn't end with a hefty fine landing on your doormat," said Burnham.

He added that such charges left "people feeling ripped off and out of pocket".

A guaranteed five-minute period to decide whether to park

A 10-minute window to leave without facing a penalty

Cancellation of charges for issues drivers can't control, such as vehicle breakdowns in car parks

Cancellation of charges for honest mistakes such as stopping to check directions, as well as for medical emergencies or broken ticket machines

Maximum charges of £20 on appeal for slip-ups such as forgetting a parking permit, entering the wrong vehicle registration, or forgetting to confirm the registration in the machine when parking

A freeze on the maximum parking charge at £100, which is the same limit as the current private parking Code of Practice

The new code will apply in England, Scotland and Wales.

Operators who do not comply risk losing access to DVLA data, making it more difficult to pursue the car's owner even if they do issue a charge.

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The government's Private Parking Code of Practice has been seven years in the making.

In 2019, an act of Parliament was passed to create a code but the code was withdrawn in 2022, due to "resistance from the private parking industry", according to the RAC.

The current industry Code of Practice, created by the British Parking Association and the International Parking Community, was introduced in 2024 and updated last year after a review .

Angela Rayner, the Communities and Housing Secretary, told BBC Breakfast that parking "shouldn't be a way of making money".

Asked if the changes were an admission that motorists have been "ripped off" by parking companies for years, she said: "We're calling time on it. They have regulated themselves and they have their appeals process but we're giving it more meat now."

She said the current level of fine was a "proportionate response to when people don't follow the rules".

Derek Millard-Smith from the British Parking Association said the group welcomed the changes as it would "increase trust" and said "detterents work" when it came to questions over the cost of fines.

"We know dog fouling, rail fare dodging, littering - all those levels are around £100 or more because that is a level that is deemed sufficient to change behaviours."

Both the AA and the RAC said the new code was a good first step but did not go far enough.

The AA said some drivers pay up even if they have done nothing wrong, just to avoid the hassle and over fears of legal action being taken against them.

"There is still a huge amount of work to do, such as tackling the scourge of debt recovery fees," added Jack Cousens, head of roads policy at the AA.

"Ultimately, we need to stop charges being issued in the first place, especially where the driver has done nothing wrong."

The RAC's head of policy, Simon Williams, called for the banning of debt recovery fees and said the current industry-run appeals bodies should be replaced by a single independent one.

The government said it would be consulting on the issue of debt recovery fees, as well as other recommendations from the Competition and Markets Authority.

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