Nottingham’s licensed taxi drivers handed ‘meagre’ £200 grant to pay for extra COVID costs

Image credit: Ross Campbell

Taxi drivers licensed with Nottingham City Council (NCC) are being handed a further £200 grant to help them recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

NCC made the decision last month to use a total of £320,000 in funds to help individual drivers in the area. The grant, which will be paid automatically if the driver applied for an early grant, will go towards the increased costs of cleaning vehicles and other safety measures taken.

However not all taxi drivers were happy with the size of grant with one taxi driver calling the latest offering ‘meagre’.

Amir Sharif highlighted the support received from licensing authorities in surrounding areas: “No need to boast with this meagre of a grant when other local councils have given their drivers grants of up to £3,000. Its an absolute shame.”

Councillor Rebecca Langton, Portfolio Holder for Skills, Growth and Economic Development at NCC, spoke to Nottinghamshire Live and defended the grant: “We completely understand how hard the past 18 months have been for all businesses and self-employed people.

"However, to suggest that taxi drivers have been unfairly treated by the council over supplementary grants is incorrect.

“In Nottingham, we received a pot of money from Central Government – the Discretionary Grant scheme – which we were asked to distribute among all local businesses.

"This was never supposed to replace lost income or act as a wage supplement for taxi drivers. The Government compensated individuals directly through its self-employed support programme.

“Instead, Discretionary Grant funding is intended to help with additional Covid-related costs, which for taxi drivers could include things like screens in vehicles and PPE.

“Proportionally-speaking, taxi drivers in Nottingham have received a significant chunk of this discretionary money – around £1million in total.”

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