Jurassic parking

Parking spaces are increasingly precious in an ever-congested and overregulated world

Plans for any kind of development, whether office, industrial, retail or leisure would be sunk without adequate free, or affordable, parking provision whether on-site or within reasonable walking distance.

Ministers’ pleas to the public to forsake the car in favour of buses and trains have largely fallen on deaf ears.
People seem to prefer their own space to that of often inadequate, dirty, crowded and unreliable public transport – even if the nation’s concrete arteries are congested and full of balding middle-aged, road-raging executives and school-run parents.

Yet jobsworth parking officials continue to slap on the tickets and the clamps making people’s lives a misery in the daily battle to park as close to work as possible, enjoy a leisure activity, or deliver to a business.

Phil Miller, chief executive, of Miller Developments, said: “Parking is an essential part of any large-scale development, particularly in provincial markets, but on its own, it cannot meet the needs of modern high density workplaces – public transport provision is equally essential. It would be helpful if the planning profession would recognise this is not an ‘either or’ choice – both are necessities.”

Mark Heighton, partner of City of London law firm CMS Cameron McKenna, whose clients include Prudential Property Investment Managers, Henderson Global Investors, and RREEF, among many others, agrees that car parks are an essential feature of many schemes although the demand for car parking spaces will vary depending on the nature of the project.

He says it is important that developers and property owners focus not only on the minimum or maximum number of parking spaces required by a planning authority but also on the needs of occupiers.
Planning Policy Guidance 13 sets out maximum parking standards, but each local authority has responsibility for setting parking standards through local plans.

“Depending on trading patterns, some retailers, for example, have a very high demand for car parking during their peak trading periods… this can often be a higher number of spaces than the planners think are necessary,” he said. Mr Heighton believes we are likely to see more sophisticated parking arrangements in future, particularly in relation to mixed-use schemes where different types of occupiers have different needs.

“We may move more towards spaces being, in effect, sold twice, with office occupiers using them during one part of the day and residential occupiers using them at other times of the day and weekends.”

He says this will be even more the case as we move increasingly towards mixed commercial and residential schemes. It is now common for supermarkets, for example, to contain residential elements and many expect this to extend to retail warehouse parks as well.

Mr Heighton says a particularly difficult issue between landlords and tenants is what happens to income derived from car parks. Should the landlord keep this? Should it be credited against the service charge so that it is offset against car park expenditure? “There is no right or wrong answer,” he said.

Martin Hastelow, director of commercial agency, at Savills’ Southampton branch, points out that the provision of parking for commercial properties has always been a thorny issue.

In the past, legislation and planning policies generally imposed a minimum parking requirement and, by and large, developers provided only the minimum level required. Typically, this ranged from one space to 20 sq m – (1:25 sq m) based on the gross floor area of the building for out-of-town offices.

He says central government policy over the last few years has sought to reduce levels of travelling to work by car and to encourage the use of public transport – and this is why planning policy now imposes a maximum rather than a minimum amount of parking.

This is generally at 1:30 sq m, and while developers are building up to the maximum, this does mean that new schemes have less parking than those built over the last 20 years.

Mr Hastelow said: “There is also a general policy to encourage development in town rather than out of town but this is undermined to some extent by the fact that new schemes are also permitted less parking than used to be the case.
“Most local authorities have a policy on parking that applies across their area at 1:30 with the exception that within town and city centres only a percentage of this figure will be allowed. The exact percentage usually depends on whether areas are considered to be high, medium or low accessibility.”

Most of central Southampton, for example, is considered highly accessible as a hub for public transport, Mr Hastelow says.

When the city council was at the draft stage of the new Local Plan it proposed that the high accessibility areas would be allowed 10 percent of the normal standard – that is 1:300 sq m. It subsequently decided to ease this to 15 percent, or 1:200.

This compares with buildings constructed from the late 1980s though to about 2004; typically with parking at 1:75 sq m to 1:100 sq m of floor area.

“The problem for most cities is that nobody really believes that they are highly accessible. While most companies recognise the problems of congestion and impact of car usage on the environment, the reality is that parking restrictions have been brought in before any real alternatives have been provided,” said Mr Hastelow.

Martin Booth, a partner at Knight Frank’s Bristol office, says while adequate parking facilities are a crucial requirement in most commercial acquisitions, what is deemed adequate will vary between locations and, in particular, on the availability of appropriate public transport.

Occupiers are now considering environmental factors but other issues such as attracting high calibre staff – as well as their retention and safety – often conflict with this.

He says the impact of parking on the pricing is again linked to location. “In areas of high demand, such as a provincial city centre location, paying, say, £2,000 per annum for an extra space, is becoming commonplace.”

Mr Booth says inadequate parking will impact on demand for commercial space and potentially affect the viability of the scheme. But this is only part of the solution. He points out that obtaining planning permission for adequate parking provision is difficult in the current climate, but it is the same for all developers and is unlikely to get any easier.

“Consequently, site owners with the benefit of existing favourable consents can demand premium prices in the knowledge that occupiers will pay more for the right product.”

Nick Goulding, chief executive, the Forum of Private Business, points to how the retail market is distorted in favour of heavyweights at out-of-town shopping centres.

“With all the advantages of their size and purchasing power they squeeze suppliers to increase their margins and pressure local authorities to force through advantageous building plans.

“One element of those building plans is the proximity of free or low-cost parking. The convenience of nearby parking can’t be understated, from the shopper with kids in tow to the delivery van with heavy goods and a deadline, the advantages are clear to all.”

Mr Goulding says support from councils is lacking or misguided. “Too often their support is swayed by the lure of new jobs, investment and improved infrastructure, without taking into consideration the consequences to already established businesses, their employees and the hidden impact on the local economy.

“There are those council planning committees that understand the correlation between the advance of the shopping mall and the business park and the decline of the traditional high street. There are even those council planning committees that oppose plans from big businesses with proposed giant car parks, but there are few with the gall and financial backing to block them entirely.”

While free parking is an added convenience for those with the finance to build out-of-town stores, he says, those in town centres are hit by “the double-whammy of poor parking facilities and over-zealous parking attendants, hell bent on giving a ticket to any vehicle that looks like stopping near a double yellow line.”

Mr Goulding said that parking facilities provided by local authorities for their town and city centres were another source of income and could be expensive to use for the average shopper. “Multi-storeys, often some distance from the business in question, can’t compare with the open, well-lit competition down the road.”