UK Residents' Parking Permit Cost Index 2026
Generated on . Figures refresh when we rebuild the site from verified council data.
A first parking permit in Edinburgh costs £12.50 a year. Across the country in Islington, the equivalent permit runs £854.90 — for the same basic right to park outside your own home. We didn't expect a 68-fold gap when we started lining up council tariffs, but that's what the numbers show once you put 43 of them side by side.
This index covers the 43 councils in our dataset whose permit pricing we've verified against an official source — not all 230 authorities we track, and not a UK average. A council missing from this table isn't cheap or expensive; it just hasn't cleared our verification process yet.
What the numbers say
These numbers come straight from 43 councils' own published tariff tables — first-permit, 12-month prices only, nothing estimated or extrapolated.
- Typical cheapest band across the 43 councils: £50.00
- Typical most expensive band: £153.80
- Cheapest permit anywhere in the sample: £12.50 (Edinburgh)
- Most expensive permit in the sample: £854.90 (Islington)
How councils price permits
- Flat fee: 18
- Emissions-based (CO₂): 17
- Zone-based: 7
- Fuel-type: 1
14 councils show a verified effective-from date (5 printed on the tariff page; 5 from a matching dated official instrument or sibling notice when the live page doesn't print one; 4 verified against official source material without claiming a calendar line on the fees page). The other 29 don't publish an effective date we can stand behind, so we show the date we last checked instead. We never dress up a last-checked date as an effective-from date. See how we verify prices.
You'll see two kinds of date in the table below. For 14 councils we show a verified effective-from date — printed on the tariff page; from a matching dated official instrument or sibling notice (for example a London Gazette parking order or a Notice of Variation) when the page doesn't print one; verified against official source material without claiming a calendar line on the fees page. For the other 29 we show when we last checked the live page instead. A last-checked date tells you the price was still there when we looked, not when it took effect, and we keep the two clearly apart.
187 of the 230 councils we track aren't in this index yet. That's a backlog on our side, not a verdict on what they charge — the full, growing list is in the council directory.
Methodology
Every council in this table has cleared the same checks before we'll include it: a live tariff table on the council's own website, a clear first-permit price for a 12-month permit, an honest date next to it (effective-from when we can verify it — printed on the tariff page, from a matching dated instrument or sibling notice when the page doesn't print one, verified against official source material without a calendar line on the fees page when that's the honest limit, or last-checked), and a link back to the source page so you can check it yourself.
We only use first-permit, 12-month figures — the base annual price for one resident permit. We leave out visitor permits, pay-by-post or in-person payment fees, and the cost of a second or third permit for the same household, because not every council publishes those consistently.
Read the full verification method: How we verify UK parking permit prices.
This is not every UK council. 187 of the authorities we track haven't cleared our verification bar yet, so they're not represented here.
Council table
Councils are listed alphabetically. "Low" and "High" are the cheapest and priciest bands on each council's own first-permit, 12-month tariff table — not an estimate, and not what a two-car household would pay.
| Council | Low (12m first permit) | High (12m first permit) | Pricing model | Last checked / effective date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barking & Dagenham | £15.00 | £280.00 | Emissions-based | 3 September 2026 |
| Bexley | £135.00 | £168.00 | Zone-based | 3 September 2026 |
| Bracknell Forest | £50.00 | £50.00 | Flat fee | 3 September 2026 |
| Brent | £25.00 | £341.00 | Emissions-based | 3 September 2026 |
| Brighton & Hove (Unitary) | £127.75 | £456.25 | Zone-based | 20 April 2026 |
| Bristol | £129.00 | £250.00 | Zone-based | 8 April 2026 |
| Bromley | £80.00 | £150.00 | Zone-based | 1 September 2026 |
| Camden | £146.80 | £590.70 | Emissions-based | 7 October 2026 |
| Chorley | £25.00 | £25.00 | Flat fee | 30 August 2026 |
| Croydon | £39.00 | £342.00 | Emissions-based | 3 September 2026 |
| Derby | £35.00 | £35.00 | Flat fee | 3 September 2026 |
| Ealing | £50.00 | £340.00 | Emissions-based | 3 September 2026 |
| Edinburgh | £12.50 | £765.30 | Zone-based | 29 May 2026 |
| Fylde | £25.00 | £25.00 | Flat fee | 30 August 2026 |
| Glasgow | £80.00 | £220.00 | Emissions-based | 19 August 2025 |
| Greenwich | £64.00 | £318.00 | Emissions-based | 1 September 2026 |
| Hackney | £53.00 | £720.00 | Emissions-based | 3 September 2026 |
| Hammersmith & Fulham | £125.00 | £340.00 | Emissions-based | 3 February 2025 |
| Harrow | £45.00 | £115.00 | Emissions-based | 26 August 2026 |
| Havering | £45.00 | £45.00 | Flat fee | 3 September 2026 |
| Hounslow | £60.00 | £140.00 | Emissions-based | 27 August 2026 |
| Islington | £168.75 | £854.90 | Emissions-based | 2 January 2026 |
| Kingston upon Hull, City of | £22.00 | £22.00 | Flat fee | 3 September 2026 |
| Kingston upon Thames | £123.10 | £123.10 | Flat fee | 11 April 2025 |
| Lambeth | £135.96 | £682.63 | Emissions-based | 14 April 2025 |
| Merton | £95.00 | £195.00 | Zone-based | 21 April 2026 |
| Newham | £33.00 | £220.00 | Emissions-based | 30 June 2025 |
| Pendle | £25.00 | £25.00 | Flat fee | 30 August 2026 |
| Plymouth City | £63.00 | £63.00 | Flat fee | 2 September 2026 |
| Portsmouth City | £30.00 | £30.00 | Flat fee | 2 September 2026 |
| Redbridge | £39.50 | £39.50 | Flat fee | 1 September 2026 |
| Ribble Valley | £25.00 | £25.00 | Flat fee | 30 August 2026 |
| Richmond upon Thames | £68.50 | £153.80 | Zone-based | 1 September 2026 |
| Slough | £50.00 | £50.00 | Flat fee | 3 September 2026 |
| South Ribble | £25.00 | £25.00 | Flat fee | 30 August 2026 |
| Southwark | £99.90 | £285.90 | Fuel-type | 1 April 2026 |
| Sutton | £56.00 | £134.00 | Emissions-based | 1 June 2026 |
| Torbay | £36.00 | £36.00 | Flat fee | 2 September 2026 |
| Waltham Forest | £85.00 | £235.00 | Emissions-based | 2 September 2026 |
| Wandsworth | £205.00 | £205.00 | Flat fee | 3 June 2024 |
| West Lancashire | £25.00 | £25.00 | Flat fee | 30 August 2026 |
| Westminster | £40.00 | £353.10 | Emissions-based | 2 March 2026 |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | £50.00 | £50.00 | Flat fee | 3 September 2026 |
London by borough
Live in London? See London parking permit costs by borough 2026: all 25 verified boroughs side by side, from £15.00 to £854.90 a year, with diesel surcharges and the eight authorities we haven't verified yet.
This is a snapshot of 43 verified councils, not a verdict on the UK market. A council missing from this table isn't necessarily cheaper or pricier than what's shown here — it just hasn't cleared our verification process yet, and the 187 still on our hold list could sit anywhere in this range, or well outside it.
Every price here is a first-permit, 12-month figure. We don't include visitor permits, pay-by-post or in-person fees, or the cost of a second or third permit for the same household. We also don't run a year-on-year comparison: these tariffs were verified through 2025 and 2026, and we hold no earlier snapshot to measure against — so this is a single point in time, not a trend line. See how we verify prices for the full method.