Some fees charged to private hire and taxi operators are expected to quadruple next year.
Members of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Licensing Committee quizzed officials about the prospect of significant increases in some fees for 2024-25.
These include a 75 per cent increase in the knowledge test fee and a route test fee that could almost double.
Changes in administration and inflation have fuelled the increase, councillors were told at a committee meeting yesterday (Thursday 12 October).
A private hire vehicle licence is expected to double from £75 to £150 – and small private hire operators face a rise of more than 300 per cent in their licence fees from £167 to £700.
Larger private hire companies, with three or more cars, face fees going up by 17.6 per cent from £595 also to £700.
Vehicle transfer fees for taxis – known as hackney carriages – could more than quadruple from £52 to £220, a 323 per cent increase. Vehicle transfer fees for private hire vehicles could almost treble from £52 to £150.
The council’s regulatory services manager Jim Whitelegg told councillors that the current fees did not cover the cost of administering the service.
He said that the council did not make a profit from licensing fees but costs had gone up and council tax payers had been subsidising the process.
Mr Whitelegg told the committee that the minimum proposed increase was 6 per cent, aimed at covering pay inflation.
He said: “The need to increase some licensing fees by more than 6 per cent is driven by the increased officer time required to administer these licences and the additional checks required.
“We do have a duty to ensure our costs are recovered and to avoid surpluses and deficits.”
Green councillor Kerry Pickett asked why some of the charges were increasing by such large percentages.
Mr Whitelegg said that fees had been “artificially low” for years and, with the increases, would still be lower than neighbouring councils.
He said that the proposed £220 a year private hire vehicle licence worked out at £2.88 a week while the charges for the knowledge test and route test did not recoup the costs of running them.
Conservative councillor Carol Theobald asked why the vehicle transfer fees were increasing.
Mr Whitelegg said that the amount of time to process transfers was the same as for a new application and would be “more realistic”.
Green group convenor councillor Steve Davis asked if the increases had gone before the trade through the Taxi Forum.
Mr Whitelegg said that the figures had been “circulated” to the trade after the most recent forum meeting to allow for feedback.
Hmm, very interesting article that I find a little puzzling.
So if we the tax payers are subsiding costs, what has happened with the profits from Parking revenue, it was my understanding that profits had to be put towards funding other transport schemes and being taxi’s form Transport surely administration costs counts. Or is it only for cycling schemes.
The parking surplus mainly pays for the concessionary fares scheme.
These costs are for licenses which don’t count as transport costs and so aren’t eligible to ne funded from the parking surplus.
Saw yesterday that BHCC make over £30million a year PROFIT from parking and as the concessionary fares cost £10million, i ask where’s the money
The council produces an annual parking report which has all the income and expenditure listed in it.
Chris.
I was referring to the surplus profits once everything has been paid for.
If you read my post correctly I indicated administration costs not licence’s that are two different things.
If our council wanted to destroy Brighton and Hove businesses, what would they be doing differently?
Unfortunately, the spate of news articles about fees and other charges going up are all linked to the Council’s budgetary hole.
The Council can only afford to provide the statutory minimum services, and although taxis are a vital service they are not statutory. Anything outside the core services will unfortunately need to be “user pays” until we get a central government that funds local services appropriately.
Lucky that they’ve just spent £13.4m on Beryl Bikes!
Thank you Greens! thank you cllr Davis! You’ve really shafted the local taxpayers.
A contract that was made well before the current national crisis in funding for Councils.
But sure, carry on with a chip on your shoulder about the Greens (a minority-led Council) rather than the issues with central government funding.
John Walker
Incorrect, the deal was signed during August 2022.
And the current crisis in councils across the country started to become apparent at the start of 2023.
John Walker.
And the current financial situation we’re in due to events in Europe and the costs of living but don’t let those facts get in the way.
The council are responsible for their own budgets. There are plenty of question marks of the previous administration on their spending and why have they lent our money to other authorities?
Parking revenue is to be used for other transport schemes, Taxi’s form part of ‘active travel’ and therefore any administration costs should be paid for.
If the current fees don’t cover the cost of administration, clearly something is wrong with this cost. How many taxis are in Brighton? These fees likely total in 6 digits a year.
And if they are increased, guess who will have to pay more – us, the passengers.
Alexander
Somethings not quite right here. I spotted a flaw already, they state changes in administration has caused increases along with inflation. So a change in the way they do administration then is costing more, so a bad move by somebody, just like the person who thinks four sheets of paper is better than using both sides on just two.
It’s irrelevant how many taxis are in Brighton, not all of them are registered and are out of towners so don’t pay any fees.
Is a knowledge test even necessary any more with the esse of use of navigation apps and devices?
It’s a good point.
Agenda 2030 – Klaus Schwab determined that no-one will travel by car, unless of course you are one of his groupies.
Bearing in mind most of the driver checks and vehicle checks are carried by private companies,it begs the question,what do the Hackney Carriage office staff do all day ? That is why it is so expensive when their own staff could do the checks for a fraction of the price.This goes to why many councils are financially ruined !
John Walker
Hmm, our Green Leader was complaining of Budget cuts way back in 2021.
Check out Brighton and Hove News.
The council’s budget for 2021-2022 was £825.6 million, but with cuts of £18.5 million needed to ensure the council remains on a strong footing for the next financial year, there will be difficult decisions to make.
You were saying ?