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New Greater Manchester mayor expects autumn move on out-of-area taxi licensing powers
- Perry Richardson
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig says legislative reform could give the city-region greater control over private hire drivers and vehicles routinely working locally under licences issued elsewhere.
Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig has said she is hopeful the Government will move this autumn to address out-of-area taxi and private hire licensing, potentially giving the city-region greater control over vehicles working on its roads.
Craig made the comments after a Stretford resident challenged her during a BBC Radio Manchester phone-in on Thursday 13 August. The resident, named Bob, asked how she planned to tackle vehicles licensed by authorities including Wolverhampton and Sefton but operating predominantly in Greater Manchester.
Craig said: “It’s something that’s been bothering us for a long time. We’ve all seen it, loads of taxis, be it Wolverhampton or Sefton, you see them coming in from out of town.”
She added: “We’ve been asking the Government, fighting the government for more power and a change in law, that would give us the power in Greater Manchester to have taxis that are here working in GM, licensed in GM.”
The debate largely concerns private hire vehicles rather than taxis undertaking street-hail work. Under the existing legal framework, a private hire driver and vehicle licensed by one authority can complete bookings elsewhere when dispatched through a properly licensed operator. This allows drivers based in Greater Manchester to obtain licences from councils many miles away.
Craig argued that local licensing would help Greater Manchester apply consistent requirements covering vehicle safety, driver checks and local knowledge. She said the region hoped legislative movement during the autumn would provide powers to ensure vehicles primarily operating in Greater Manchester were licensed there.
The scale of cross-border licensing has made Wolverhampton a particular focus of the national debate. Previous figures reported by TaxiPoint showed that 96% of taxi and private hire licences granted by City of Wolverhampton Council were held by drivers living outside the city. More than 9,000 Wolverhampton-licensed drivers were reported to be living in Greater Manchester. Wolverhampton maintains that its licensing system meets national requirements and that its streamlined digital service responds efficiently to demand.
Craig said she had discussed the issue extensively with former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham before he became Prime Minister in July. She also revealed that she had spoken directly with Wolverhampton about the licensing arrangements.
She said: “I’m hopeful now that Andy is in the PM seat. This is something that isn’t just a Greater Manchester issue, everybody wants some action on this across the country. I’m hoping he’ll be able to crack on and change that law and we can be able to licence them here in GM.”
Craig suggested a future system could connect a driver’s licence more closely to their home or principal area of business without preventing legitimate journeys across council boundaries. Under that approach, a Greater Manchester-licensed driver could still take a passenger into Cheshire or accept work crossing regional boundaries.
She said: “If there was a national law that set it out, saying that if you’re a taxi and you live in Manchester or you live in Trafford, then you should be registered near the place where you live.”
Craig added: “It doesn’t mean that the taxi drivers on Uber can’t go and take a job in Cheshire, but if it is most of your business and where you live, you should be registered there. If the government changed the law there wouldn’t be a loophole and we’d be able to act on it.”
Burnham repeatedly pressed for reform while serving as Greater Manchester mayor. In January, after the Government proposed reducing the number of licensing authorities and curbing out-of-area working, he warned that the plan did not go far enough.
“We were saying end out-of-area working, not reduce,” Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester at the time. He indicated that a reduction would be acceptable only if it brought the practice close to an end.
The earlier proposals would have transferred licensing responsibility from 263 councils to approximately 70 local transport authorities. In Greater Manchester, that could place licensing under a regional body rather than the ten individual councils, creating common standards across a larger operating area.
Burnham had previously described the existing system as “broken”. In 2021, he said Greater Manchester’s next challenge was to close the legal mechanism allowing out-of-town private hire drivers and vehicle owners to work in the region while avoiding its locally agreed standards. Greater Manchester’s standards include common requirements for driver vetting, training, vehicle testing and operator records.
Any restriction will need to distinguish routine out-of-area working from legitimate cross-boundary journeys. App operators and parts of the private hire sector have previously warned that rigid geographic restrictions could reduce vehicle availability and increase waiting times, particularly around airports, at night and in communities close to local authority borders.
For locally licensed drivers and councils, reform could reduce differences in licensing costs and conditions while bringing enforcement responsibility closer to where vehicles operate. For drivers holding licences from distant authorities, it could mean relicensing, meeting different vehicle conditions and paying fees to a new regional licensing body.
The appointment of Burnham as Prime Minister has increased expectations that the issue will reach legislation. Craig’s comments suggest Greater Manchester is now looking to the autumn for evidence that the former mayor’s campaign will be converted into national policy.
