Shadow Minister Emma Hardy calls for funding to help the private hire driver sector recover
Updated: Apr 26, 2021

Shadow Minister for Education, Emma Hardy, has asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what funding is being considered to support the private hire driver sector during the pandemic.
Speaking during a parliamentary discussion on 20 April, Hardy asked: "What assessments his Department has made of the potential merits of providing funding to the private hire vehicle sector to help that sector recover from the effects of the national COVID-19 lockdown restrictions that began in January 2021?"
Although some local licensing authorities have used funding from the Government's Discretionary Funds to support taxi and private hire drivers around the UK, not all drivers and operators have managed to benefit from such support.
There has been calls from drivers, operators, representatives of the industry and even MPs, for government to allocate dedicated financial support to the taxi and private hire industry, which has been one of the hardest hit throughout the pandemic.
In response to Hardy's question, the Exchequer Secretary, Minister for Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, pointed towards the SEISS as the main port of call for taxi and private hire drivers, the majority of whom are "overwhelmingly" self-employed, to access financial support.
Badenoch said: "The overwhelming majority of taxi and private hire vehicle drivers are self-employed, and therefore may have been able to benefit from the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
"At Budget, the Chancellor announced that SEISS will continue until September, with a fourth and fifth grant, to provide certainty to businesses as the economy reopens.
"The Government will spend over £33bn supporting those in self-employment through the SEISS throughout this crisis, yet it remains to be just one element of a comprehensive package of support."
She went on to highlight drivers may be eligible to access other elements of support, including self-serve time-to-pay arrangements, loans, welfare support, self-isolation support payments and other business support grants.