What London councils charge to reserve a removal bay

A narrow comparable question

What this cost index measures

The comparison fixes one practical scenario so administration fees, daily bay charges and domestic concessions can be read without pretending every authority sells the same product.

The scenario is one ordinary on street parking bay or five metre space, for one day, for a domestic move, booked through the public resident or general applicant route with the standard notice needed for the published charge. Mandatory administration, booking or service fees are included where the authority publishes them.

The comparison excludes short notice surcharges, cancellation fees, amendments, skips, temporary traffic orders, commercial or utility prices, enforcement costs, vehicle relocation, paid parking outside the suspension and separate road charges. It also excludes any moving labour or transport price.

A domestic concession is used only when the current public authority source expressly states it. A location range stays a range. Where current sources conflict or the route does not establish domestic eligibility, the row is excluded from the exact summary instead of being completed by assumption.

Transparent evidence method

How every authority route was classified

The dataset separates exact totals, bounded location ranges, live source conflicts and routes that cannot support a domestic total from public evidence alone.

Men With Van reviewed the current public route for every London borough and the City of London on 29 July 2026. The source table records the fee shown to the applicant, any mandatory administration charge, the first day space charge, the domestic removal treatment, the notice assumption, the source URL and a plain evidence note.

Twenty one rows have an exact comparable total. Six have a bounded location dependent range. Croydon, Harrow, Kingston upon Thames, Lewisham, Richmond upon Thames and Westminster publish fees that change with the zone, bay or local tariff.

Ealing is kept out of the exact summary because its public application page and annual schedule show different standard figures. Hackney is also kept out because the same current page states one administration amount in a sentence and another in the fee section and worked examples.

City of London, Enfield, Havering and Sutton do not support one clean domestic total from the reviewed public wording. Their rows preserve the published route and explain the missing decision rather than estimating it.

Exact published totals

The exact one day totals span £48.00 to £241.02

Among the twenty one routes that support one exact total, the median is £98.83 after mandatory published fees and domestic concessions are applied.

Hammersmith and Fulham and Newham each produce an exact £48.00 total for this scenario. Hillingdon follows at £48.50. At the other end of the exact set, Barnet produces £241.02 because the published daily space charge sits beside a substantial successful application administration fee.

The median exact total is £98.83, which is the Lambeth result under its domestic removal concession. This median is not a London wide average and it does not include the six bounded ranges, two conflicting routes or four unclear routes.

The chart is not a service quality ranking. A lower first day charge does not prove faster processing, stronger enforcement, better availability or an easier move. A higher charge does not prove the opposite. It records only the public charge created by the stated scenario.

Complete 33 authority table

Published cost evidence for every London authority

Open the authority name for the current public source, then read the fee structure and evidence status before treating the displayed result as a booking amount.

Download the full source checked CSV

The download adds the numeric minimum and maximum, standard notice used, mandatory administration or booking fee, first day space fee, domestic removal treatment, primary and supporting source URLs, check date and editorial note.

Domestic removal treatment

A first day concession can change the whole result

Several authorities separate domestic moving from works, filming or general commercial use, so the reason entered on the application matters.

Camden waives the first day space charge for up to three consecutive spaces when moving home, leaving its administration charge in this scenario. Lambeth also gives up to three free spaces on the first day of a domestic move, so its published administration charge becomes the exact total.

Tower Hamlets offers residents moving house up to two bays for one day without the daily bay charge, while retaining the service charge. Waltham Forest says domestic removals pay the application fee only for the first day.

Islington takes a different approach. Its page says most domestic removals can load near the home for free, but it also publishes a resident day one suspension price when a reserved space is actually required. This comparison uses the reserved space price because the scenario asks for a suspension.

Do not choose a reason merely to obtain a lower price. The application must describe the real move, vehicle and use. The authority can refuse a request, ask for evidence or direct the applicant to a different permission.

Keep the costs separate

The suspension fee is not the moving quote

A council charge reserves or changes a street restriction. It does not price the vehicle, movers, route, access or time needed to complete the job.

A moving quote may use the number of vans, crew size, booked hours, route mileage, extra stops, stairs, lift access, carrying distance, packing choice, handling requirements, applicable road charges and VAT. The public suspension fee is one separate third party input.

The final parking requirement also depends on the actual vehicle length and operating space. A tail lift, loading route or safe clearance may need more than one nominal bay. The authority can also approve a position that is not directly outside the entrance.

Use the London moving cost guide for quote inputs and the moving day parking guide for signs, road ownership and loading checks. The notice period index keeps the application clock separate from the fee.

Before paying

Check the exact street and checkout amount

The source date is a starting point. The controlling price is the amount confirmed by the authority for the real bay, date, purpose and applicant.

Identify who controls the road before opening a borough form. A red route is normally controlled by Transport for London, not the borough. A private road, estate or car park may use a different owner and permission route.

Record the address, authority, bay type, requested length, vehicle registration, purpose, move date, application deadline and every fee shown at checkout. If a published source conflicts with the application total, ask the authority which figure controls before payment.

Keep the confirmation, suspension reference, approved purpose, dates, vehicle details, sign location and enforcement contact with the moving access record. A paid suspension does not guarantee the space will be empty, so retain a lawful fallback and report an obstruction through the authority route.

• Confirm the road authority and bay type.
• Count back using the authority's current notice wording.
• Enter the real domestic move purpose and vehicle.
• Check every mandatory fee before payment.
• Save the approval and street sign evidence.
• Connect the street record to the building access plan.

Corrections and reuse

How this dataset will be maintained

Every row carries a source URL, check date and evidence note so one authority can be corrected without silently changing the rest of the comparison.

A material fee change, corrected interpretation or authority response will receive a new modified date and a plain note in the affected row. Historic editions should be treated as a record of what the cited source displayed on the check date.

The CSV may be reused with attribution to Men With Van for the compilation and to each authority for its underlying fee information. Keep the scenario, evidence status, source URL, check date and editorial note with every reused value.

Do not turn the exact chart into a service quality ranking. Do not replace a bounded range with its midpoint. Do not choose one side of a source conflict without a current authority confirmation.

For a correction, send the authority name, field in question and a current official source to info@menwithvan.com. Journalists, housing teams and property editors can use the media and expert resource library for the download and contact route.