In a bid to reduce carbon emissions, local councils across the UK have made bigger strides towards making travelling to city centres more sustainable. With an increasing implementation of Clean Air Zones and parking, drivers of non-compliant petrol and diesel cars have been subject to rising prices when travelling to work. A sector that has been heavily impacted by this has been the trades, with British tradespeople avoiding to take work in the capital altogether as they struggle to make profit from those jobs.

According to research by the Federation of Master Builders, 80% of builders have had to raise prices due to spiralling parking charges. Fix Radio – the UK’s dedicated radio station for tradespeople – has found that the cost of steep parking fee rises, and ‘green’ motoring charges forces builders, plumbers and electricians to spend £70 on average before they have even walked through the door, a total of £300 a day counting with operating costs.

Key stats:

80% of builders have had to raise prices due to spiralling parking charges
Tradesmen spend up to £139.50 on parking and congestion daily charges in the capital
In Kensington and Chelsea, they spend £88.50 per day on average
This is further reflected in the data collected by The Federation of Master Builders, who calculated the surplus transport charges tradespeople have to face to carry out a job in the city. Including parking, congestion and emission charges, the highest total daily bill for a diesel van in Islington was of up to £139.50. The second highest area was Kensington and Chelsea, with a bill of £88.50.

Gary Mellor of London Gas and speaker on Fix Radio’s Heating and Plumbing Show, gave his opinion on the changes to the capital’s traffic network:

“It is £6 an hour in parking. If I am there for four hours that is £24. Plus, the £12.5 ULEZ, that is £36.5. If I do an eight-hour day that is £60. If I am there for the whole week that is £300 I have to charge the customer on top of the normal job. That is London: it is extortionate and unsustainable. It is simply too much hassle to go these jobs and I am having to turn down work as a result.’

“I have watched YouTube videos from Artisan Electrics, and he has a new electric [van]… It is £50,000 plus, it is limited to 59 miles per hour, [and] has a maximum range of 58 miles. He had to stop three times to charge it. [He] spent more time charging it than driving! You can’t operate like that.”