COMMUNITIES secretary Eric Pickles has successfully stopped council “bullies” from fining homeowners from renting out their driveways.

Mr Pickles recently announced his campaign to defend UK homeowners against what he described as “a back-door parking tax” and new government guidance will prevent councils and town halls from “stopping hard-working people from making a bit of extra cash from their homes."

In York, recent research by ParkatmyHouse.com, a website for renting our private parking spaces, estimated that driveways lying idle across the city are worth a massive £2423097.

Currently, the homeowner in York rents their driveway at an average of £6.77 per day.

Mr Pickles said: “We have cut petty state regulations to make renting out your driveway even easier.

”This is helping to provide more low-cost parking spaces for commuters, tourists and shoppers.”

The news to champion driveway rental comes following the recent announcement that as part of a trial in May, free parking will be offered in eight city centre car parks between 8am-11am on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Last year, town halls began threatening homeowners renting out their driveways with maximum fines of up to £20,000 but Mr Pickles branded them “over-zealous bullies.”

He said: “The new guidance is a slap in the face for town halls, advising that they ‘consider citizens’ ability to exercise their private property rights and benefit from the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions.”

Founder of ParkatmyHouse.com Anthony Eskinazi welcomed the news and said that the new guidance will hopefully encourage more people to join the 18,000 already renting out their driveways.