A ban on clamping cars parked on privately-owned land has now come into force with the commencement of the section 54 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
It is now illegal for anyone without lawful authority to immobilise a vehicle that “prevents or inhibits the removal of the vehicle by a person otherwise entitled to remove it”. This means that social landlords – including local authority landlords – cannot use clamping as a method of enforcing parking regulations. This could mean that parking enforcement contracts let by landlords are frustrated by supervening illegality.
To help regulate parking on private land, the Act allows landowners and contractors to use barriers to restrict access and ticketing to penalise parking contraventions. The Department for Transport has published guidance for issuing parking tickets.