WORK WHERE YOU LIVE: MP challenges minister on whether taxi and private hire drivers should ONLY be licensed where they live
- Perry Richardson
- 37 minutes ago
- 2 min read
A Labour MP has pressed the Government on whether taxi and private hire drivers should be licensed strictly in the communities where they live, reigniting debate over how to rein in out-of-area licensing without destabilising the workforce that keeps urban transport moving.
Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton, asked the Transport Secretary if ministers were considering a residency-based licensing requirement validated through council tax, electoral roll and credit reference checks. The question went to the centre of a long-running dispute: whether the current system allows too many drivers to obtain licences far from where they work, weakening local oversight and creating uneven standards.
Transport Minister Lilian Greenwood replied that the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill already aims to address these problems through national minimum standards rather than residency conditions. She said national requirements would help close the regulatory gaps that incentivise drivers to be licensed in more permissive authorities, and reaffirmed that the Department is still reviewing options on out-of-area working and enforcement.
There was no indication that ministers intend to pursue home-address licensing as a preferred solution.
Government replies that national minimum standards remain the planned solution as industry figures warn residency rules would be unworkable in major cities
Residency rules may appear straightforward but would create significant issues. London offers the clearest illustration as an example. Thousands of licensed taxi and private hire drivers work in the capital yet cannot afford to live within the Greater London boundary. Requiring them to be licensed only where they live would force many drivers out of the workforce or away from the cities that depend on them reducing availability.
In many other regions the picture is similar. Housing costs, commuting patterns and flexible working arrangements mean the location where a driver lives quite rarely matches where they are licensed and work within. Hackney carriage taxi drivers can only ply-for-hire in the area they are licensed meaning that no cross-border actions are taken and they remain in the area they are licensed, no matter where they chose to live.
Councils have warned for years that the underlying problem is the disparity between licensing regimes, not the addresses of individual drivers. Operators continue to licence in jurisdictions with lower fees or lighter requirements, and the Department for Transport has repeatedly recognised this variability as the main driver of cross-border activity.
Minister Greenwood replied: “The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill seeks to introduce powers to set national minimum standards for taxi and private hire vehicle licensing. If passed, national minimum standards would enable government to set robust standards for licensing across England, to keep all members of the public safe, wherever they live or travel. It would also help reduce the variability of licensing standards across the country, which is a significant factor in inducing drivers to licence with an authority other than that in which they intend to work.
“The Department continues to consider further options for reform, including out-of-area working and enforcement. We need to ensure that taxis and PHVs are able to work in a way that facilitates the journeys passengers want and need to make, in a consistently safe way, whilst achieving the best overall outcomes for passenger safety.”
