Hospital parking charges would be axed under a Labour government, Jeremy Corbyn will announce today.

If he wins the General Election, all parking for patients, visitors and staff at hospitals in England would be free of charge - funded by a tax hike for those with private health insurance.

Labour say the plans would cost £162m, to be paid for by increasing Insurance Premium Tax on holders of private insurance from the current level of 12%, up to 20%.

Parking charges at hospitals, levied by cash-strapped NHS trusts, have reached record levels in England. They collected at least £120m in 2015 - up by 5%, according to the Press Association.

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:: Hospitals charge nurses £90 a month to park their cars


Mr Corbyn, who is today meeting student nurses in Worcester, says: "Labour will end hospital parking charges, which place an unfair and unnecessary burden on families, patients and NHS staff. Hospital parking charges are a tax on serious illnesses.



"Our hospitals are struggling from under-funding at the hands of Theresa May's Conservative government, but the gap should not be filled by charging sick patients, anxious relatives and already hard-pressed NHS staff for an essential service."

Labour described the policy as "scrapping the subsidy for people that can afford it, rather than charging people who can't".

Last month, a Freedom of Information request by Unison revealed some hospitals are charging staff, including nurses, nearly £100 a month to park, resulting in nurses having to rush out between appointments to move their cars and avoid fines.



Around 10% of the UK population - four million adults - have private health insurance, and the annual costs can run to thousands of pounds per year.

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The proposed tax hike would raise at least £220m and up to £377m, according to Labour Party research.

They say hospital trusts, who contact out their parking to private companies, would have the bill reimbursed for the duration of the contract.

Trusts would be "more than reimbursed" from what they lose by making parking free of charge, party officials said.

Hospital trusts set their own parking charges. In 2014, Jeremy Hunt the health secretary issued new guidance to trusts after an outcry about parking charges, to try to curb "excessive" costs. But some trusts continued to increase charges.

A party source said that as with Labour's recent pledge to levy VAT on private school fees to fund free school meals, it was "a policy for the many not the few - the many will benefit".

Patients groups say the charges in England are unfair. Hospital parking in Wales and Scotland is largely free of charge.

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Labour cites a report claiming around 80% of private medical insurance policies are now purchased "by corporate employers on behalf of wealthier high-skilled employees".



Some hospital trusts have allowed parking charges to soar to shocking levels in recent years.

A recent investigation by the Daily Mirror found that Heart of England NHS Trust in Birmingham raked in £4.8m from parking charges in 2015 - £3.5m of it from patients and the rest from staff.

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospital Southampton both made more than £3.3m in the same year.

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