Agenda item

Report of the Group Director of Services

The Group Director of Services submitted a report (previously circulated) to invite Members to determine the fees relating to licensing.

It was reported that the fees are based on the cost recovery of administering and where appropriate enforcing the relevant legislation relating to such licences; and Councils are responsible for administering a range of licences and for the majority of these regimes the costs are recovered through fees set by each council and paid by the licence applicant.

It was also highlighted that Locally set fees are a vital means of ensuring that full costs can be recovered, reducing the risk of a subsidy from local tax payers, and that businesses do not pay more than they should.

It was reported that this financial year had continued to see unprecedented challenges within the  licensing environment following the ongoing recovery from the Covid pandemic and the effects the war in Ukraine has had on the national economy the Taxi provision, which is closely linked to the to the night-time economy had also had to suffer the impact of a driver shortage following the easing of Covid regulations.

It was also reported that the estimated loss of taxi income due to Covid-19 had been £45,000 and that the funding to support that loss was no longer available.

The report also highlighted other areas affecting licensing including on 1 September 2022 Licensing introduced a new on-line application for taxis with the aim of improving efficiency and satisfaction in processing these applications and early indications were that staff and customers were seeing the benefits of the system and although it was clear that efficiency savings will be made, the income generated will not be as great due the reduction in driver numbers; on the 4 April the Financial Act 2022 introduced a requirement for all taxi and private hire driving licence applications to be accompanied with a code from HMRC to demonstrate that they are registered to pay tax on their earnings as a driver placing an additional administrative requirement on the licensing service;  and on 31 March, the Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act 2022 received Royal Assent and within that Act there is a requirement for licensing to check a national database (NR3) of licence refusals, suspensions and revocations and to maintain this database with decisions made by this Licensing Authority placing an additional administrative requirement on the licensing department.

It was reported that as part of the ongoing digitisation programme of the licensing department, the on-line appointment system ‘Qmatic’ was in the process of being integrated into the licensing department for taxis and will be a crucial element in improving service quality and when fully integrated it will be used with other licensing regimes.

The submitted report also provided information on Taxi marshals that were introduced as a direct response to a shortage of drivers servicing the ranks for the night time economy; staffing; taxi licensing fees and general licensing fees; consultation with Highways; Pavement Cafés licences; and detailed the proposed 5 per cent increase on all licence fees from 1 April 2023 compared to the current licence fees.

RESOLVED – That approval be given to increase by 5 per cent, all licensing fees across all regimes in line with the predicted Retail Price Index (RPI) for 2023.