VIEWS ON DEVOLUTION


Article by Dave Lawrie, Director NPHTA info@nphta.co.uk


Welcome to 2025, we hope you all had a busy, safe and profitable festive period, now we look to the year ahead and what it will or indeed will not bring.


On 16 December 2024, the Government issued the English Devolution White Paper, announcing reforms which will have a significant impact on every council and community and setting out an Enhanced Devolution Framework.


We think this white paper is the “levelling up” consultation that we have been promised for the last few years. It should have had an aim to address the subject of cross-border working’ instead, it is “devolution,” which is more about planning, rail and bus services, education, back to work plans, business investments, removing borders, and more to the point: placing all powers in the hands of Regional Mayors, which is not what we were expecting.


It does not actually address or reduce cross-border working, instead it would remove the borders, effectively agreeing with and adopting the “regions” or “zones” adopted by Uber.


We may well see that local authorities disappear, instead creating districts or regions, with powers shifted from central government (Whitehall) to regional mayors for the likes of Greater Manchester, Lancashire, West Midlands, East Midlands, Humberside etc.


Having read the entire document, which let me tell you, takes some reading, taxi and private hire gets a very small mention - two paragraphs to be precise:


Taxi and private hire vehicles


“Taxis and private hire vehicles are an important part of our transport networks and some of the most vulnerable groups in our society rely on them. We recognise there are concerns about out-of- area working by private hire vehicles and are exploring how best to address these concerns. As part of this, we will consult on whether to make all Local Transport Authorities (including Strategic Authorities) responsible for taxi and private hire vehicle licensing.


“Administering taxi and private hire vehicle licensing across this larger footprint would increase the consistency of standards and enable


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more effective use of enforcement powers across a whole functional economic area. Greater economies of scale should also enable authorities to improve the efficiency of licensing, reducing the incentives for people to license out of their usual working area. This would be a significant change for the sector, and we will work with stakeholders to understand possible impacts before taking a final decision. In London, taxi and private hire vehicle licensing is already the responsibility of the Mayor and Transport for London.”


What is “the footprint”?


We do not believe this will address the problem at all, in fact, where we have seen other regions “combine” such as BCP and North Yorkshire, we have watched as the problems become far worse than they ever were. The issue right now is cross-border working within the private hire sector, where a vehicle and driver licensed by one area, is working entirely in a different area, only seeing their issuing authority region at application or renewal stage.


If this removal of boundaries goes ahead, then the issue will expand to hackney carriages too, since there will be a far wider footprint within which they can use ranks and be flagged down. For example, why would someone sit on a taxi rank in an area where there is no nightlife, train stations, airports or tourism, when they would be able to sit on a rank in Blackpool, Preston or anywhere else within their “zone”?


This then has a devastating impact on the end user, the elderly and vulnerable within rural districts, as there will simply be little to no available vehicles in the area.


Standardised regional conditions


The attempted introduction of minimum licensing standards in Greater Manchester, to date has not been accepted by all ten of those councils and is still having massive impacts on the trade within those regions. We see differences in age limits, tinted window restrictions, CCTV requirements, first aid kits, fire extinguishers, colour of vehicles, mixed fleets for hackney carriages, variations on fees and fares, bus lane access for private hire, the list is endless.


What might change?


If we look a little deeper, what does this mean for you, what changes could we see? Well for a start, if the local council is lost, then so are their conditions and policies,


JANUARY 2025 PHTM


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