Agenda item

Appendix A Taxi and Private Hire Fees and Charges Schedule - Due to a clerical error this appendix has been updated (see supplementary paper) and this will be included in the Committee papers in June with the minutes for the Committee to note.

The Committee received a report on the taxi and private hire licensing budget review and fees and charges and were asked to consider whether to approve the proposed fees and charges set out at Appendix A of the report prior to statutory advertising and consultation.

Taxi and private hire licensing fees could only be set at levels to recover such costs as were prescribed in law. The Council could not make a profit from licence fees and any shortfall in revenue, if not met by licence fee payers, must be borne by the Council as a whole. In practice, this meant that the costs of the Service should be covered entirely by taxi licensing fee income into the Council. Any surplus or deficit must be carried forward and form part of any subsequent review of fees.

In July 2021, taxi and private hire fees and charges were approved as part of the implementation of a new Taxi and Private Hire Licensing Policy for Buckinghamshire, which came into effect in September 2021. The Licensing Service also went through the Better Buckinghamshire programme in 2021 and new structures for a harmonised Licensing Service, organised by specialism rather than geographical location, came into effect from the 1 September 2021. This created a single taxi and private hire licensing service serving the whole of Buckinghamshire and operating under the new Policy. Assurances were provided to the Licensing Committee that a full annual review of taxi licensing budgets and fees and charge would be carried out a year into implementation of the new Policy. This would enable the service to fully understand any surplus or deficit at that point and ensure that any adjustments required could be considered. This review was carried out between September and December 2022 and showed an adverse forecast position for the 2022/23 period of £100k. The main reasons for this were a reduction of application income into the service as a result of the longer term impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the alignment of legacy council licensing arrangements, which meant that licence holders who might have previously required more than one licence to work across Buckinghamshire, now only required one. 

A revised set of taxi and private hire licensing fees and charges were presented to the Committee in January 2023, which were set at such a level to return the service to a cost neutral position over the following three financial rolling years. These fees were approved for statutory advertisement and consultation purposes and were subsequently approved by the Committee in April 2023 for implementation. Given the uncertainties at the time around the wider economy and the national trends on taxi and private hire driver and vehicle numbers following the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was proposed that the taxi and private hire licensing budget position be reported again to the Committee in Q4 of 2023/24. This would provide the opportunity to ensure that the budget position was as anticipated at the time that the fees and charges were set and that the service had maintained a cost neutral position. It would also provide an opportunity to carry out the annual review of fees and charges for the following year (2024/25) in relation to any increase in RPI that might be required to recover related increased costs to the Council. This report provided the Committee with the projected budget position for the 2023/24 financial period and proposed that a 4% uplift be applied to fees and charges for the 2024/25 period to ensure that the service remains cost neutral to the Council.

If approved, the proposed fees would be subject to a full consultation process with the licensed trade and other relevant parties. Section 70 of the Act sets out statutory advertising requirements in relation to vehicle and operator licences which require that an advert must be published within a local newspaper and at least 28 days provided for comments to be made. It was proposed that this consultation period would begin during March 2024. The licensed taxi and private hire trade would be made aware of the consultation and how to feed in via email, SMS and the Taxi and Private Hire News webpages. Following the statutory consultation process, a further report would be presented to the Licensing Committee at its next meeting on 16 April 2024, setting out the results of the consultation and any amendments made to the proposed fees as a result. If approved, the final proposed fees would take effect across the whole Council area from 22 April 2024. Fees would be reviewed annually and further reports would be provided to the Licensing Committee following review.

Members were invited to ask questions of officers.  A Member asked why the proposed cost of a 3-year renewal was higher than some of the authorities listed in appendix B of the report. Officers explained that the service was required to undertake the same checks for a renewal as were carried out for a new application. This included checks on right to work, DBS checks and ensuring that the processes around safeguarding had been followed.   This was to ensure that the driver had not committed any motor offences or misdemeanours during the course of a previous licence. This also enabled officers to consider any additional intelligence or information from the Police of other authorities which might have been provided.  This was in accordance with the statutory guidance which was issued to licensing authorities.  This guidance had been applied differently in different local areas.  Buckinghamshire Council had decided to be extremely robust in following the statutory guidance and its approach to licensing drivers and therefore the costs associated with these activities were the same as they were for a new application.

Referring to appendix B of the report, a Member asked why the Council was not doing better than some of the other local authorities in terms of fee levels.  In response, officers advised that carrying out the necessary checks and measures was very important to ensuring public safety. Whilst all local authorities were encouraged to implement The Department for Transport’s ‘Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards’, it was not set in statute.  Some local authorities were still in the process of including the guidance in their policies, whereas Buckinghamshire was one of the earlier adopters.  There was still local disparity across the Country and whilst the gap between local authorities was narrowing, there was still report data being produced that showed that some local authorities were not operating to the same standards which were being operated to in Buckinghamshire.  In terms of costs, considerable changes were made last year to the way the service was delivered to reduce the costs of running the service, which included making three staff redundant within the service to reduce staffing costs.   It was noted that, following the recovery of the trade post-pandemic, the service was now experiencing a slight increase in demand compared to a year ago. The service had not had to take on any new staff to manage this increase in demand because of the improved systems and processes which had been put in place following the harmonisation of the service. 

In response to a question regarding the timings of fee reviews, officers explained that there was a need to carry out an annual review of fees because due to a statutory requirement, the Council could not just apply an inflationary increase every year as there was a need to go out to consultation if the Council changed the vehicle and operator fees at a level above £25. This meant that the fees needed to be reviewed on an annual basis if an increase was proposed and brought to the Committee for a decision.

A Member asked why an increase in fees was being proposed if the forecast was that the outturn position would be £16k positive at end of year and questioned if there was a risk that taxi licence income would be reduced by pushing the trade away if fees were increased. In response, officers explained that forecast application income into the service was projected to be slightly higher than budgeted and likely reflected the gentle recovery of the licensed trade post-pandemic. Running costs and staffing costs had increased in line with this and were offset by the additional income received.  Officers had carried out a comprehensive review of the cost of delivering taxi licensing services.  The fees were set based on known information and on assumptions and forecasts. When setting fees, the Council had to take into account the rolling nature of the applications and renewal processes over a 1, 3 and 5-year application cycle.  The Council also had to consider additional costs to the service which could occur over the next financial period, such as staffing pay awards and supplier costs which could vary subject to wider market pressures and contract costs. Furthermore, more applications would mean more activities and potentially more enforcement activity, activities at events and complaints. The service always strived to manage within its existing resources to keep the cost down for the trade but if there was additional work required in that area, then the service needed to think about the potential cost of that.

With regard to the trade, officers stated that the service had tried hard to work closely with the trade and build relationships with their key representatives, such as through the working group and stakeholder meetings which were working well. Officers explained that whilst the service wanted Buckinghamshire operators to operate in Buckinghamshire and for the drivers to licence in Buckinghamshire, it was an open market and therefore drivers could licence in other areas and then subcontract back into Buckinghamshire. However, the service had not seen that happen in significant numbers in Buckinghamshire and if this was to happen it was likely that this would have happened last year when the fees went up.

In terms of communicating the fee increase to the trade, officers explained that the service would send out SMS and emails to operators and drivers and license holders and would update the trade’s communications page on the Council’s website.  A Member stressed the importance of ensuring that the trade was informed of the reasons for the proposed increase and how the Council must retain a cost neutral position. 

Following the discussion, the Chairman explained that the recommendation being put to the Committee had been amended and was as follows:

That the proposed fees and charges set out at Appendix A are approved prior to statutory advertising and consultation.

On a vote being taken the recommendation was proposed by Cllr Town and seconded by Cllr Dhillon and:-

RESOLVED that the proposed fees and charges set out at Appendix A be approved prior to statutory advertising and consultation.

Councillor Waheed Raja, having declared a prejudicial interest, left the room prior to the commencement of the debate on this item and did not return or take part in the vote on this item.