Agenda item

A report from the Executive Director (Operations) is attached.

The Executive Director (Operations) submitted a report outlining the proposal to amend the Council’s current policy relating to the transitional arrangements to enable vehicle proprietors of non-compliant hackney carriage and private hire vehicles to make a renewal application after the 1^st January 2026. The rationale for this relates to the recent agreement between the 10 GM Authorities, GMCA and Transport for Greater Manchester to permit non-compliant vehicles to remain on fleet until the 31^st December 2026.

The Assistant Director (Public Protection & Resilience) presented the report and provided a summary to the Committee.

The Council’s vehicle emissions and age policies are critical factors for our vehicle licence proprietors in considering their business investment options and viability.

The emissions policy compliance date has been amended 3 times by the Committee in recent years because it became inextricably linked to the Clean Air Plan (CAP) for Greater Manchester, and this plan has been subject to numerous changes and delays since work began in 2018. The Committee has sought to ensure our vehicle licence holders were not adversely affected by those delays.

As Taxis and Private Hire vehicles have continuously been affected by the legal directives issued to all 10 Greater Manchester (GM) authorities, GM submissions have always included an ask of Government for grant funding to support our licensed trades.

In order to support the case for funding support and provide assurance that it would deliver the changes required, GM offered commitments to government that emissions policies would mandate the transition to cleaner vehicles and prevent non-emissions compliant vehicles from being licensed in the future.

This report outlined how the CAP evolved and the subsequent changes to our emissions policy; explains the final outcome of the negotiations with Government in relation to the investment-led CAP, and explains how this affects the deliverability of our current emissions policy. In recognising the wider impact of these issues on our licensed trade, and in response to approaches from the trade in our engagement meetings, this report also outlined proposals for amendments to the emissions and vehicle age policies.

This wider context was taken into consideration by the Committee and Full Council in November 2021, alongside the impacts of the pandemic and subsequent cost of living crisis, when it considered changes to the emissions and age policies as part of the Stage 2 (vehicles) MLS report. The committee and Full Council at that time amended the policies to:

For existing vehicle licence proprietors:

That the transitional arrangements amended by Full Council on the 22^nd March 2023, in relation to age and emissions, previously extended from the 1^st April 2024 to the 1^st April 2026, are amended again and to be in effect from the 1^st January 2026. This will enable hackney carriage and private hire vehicle owners to meet the agreed GM emissions standard outlined in the revised GM Clean Air Plan submissions. The amended policy will state that from the 31^st December 2024 a vehicle licence will not be renewed if the vehicle does not meet the current emission standard.

On the 20^th March 2024, Full Council ratified the above recommendation from the Licensing and Safety Committee.

Members were reminded that on the 5^th September 2024, a further report was considered by the Licensing and Safety Committee regarding Review of transitional arrangements for existing Hackney Carriage and Private Hire vehicles in respect of emissions standards, which was ratified by Full Council on the 11^th September 2024.

The Assistant Director (Public Protection & Resilience) commented on the latest position of the clean air plan and Greater Manchester.

On the 22^nd May 2025, the Licensing Service hosted a trade engagement meeting with trade representatives from the hackney carriage and private hire trades in Bury regarding the content of this report. The trade representatives were in support of the proposed amendments to Council Policy.

Leaders discussed a potential way forward, driven by a strong intention that all 10 authorities retain a consistent position with regards to the emissions policy. This would ensure that access to any funds is fair and equitable, and to mitigate against an increased risk of licence shopping between the GM authorities.

On the 16^th April 2025, trade representatives from across GreaterManchester were invited to a round table event hosted by the GMCA Chair to communicate the position that all 10 Leaders had discussed and to officially launch the campaign; ‘Backing Our Taxis: Local. Licensed. Trusted’ Many representatives from Bury were in attendance and the proposals were generally well received.

A campaign for legislative change had been supported by Bury with the Cabinet Member for Culture and Economy writing to the transport Minister. It was welcomed as the only way to address the negative impacts of the changes brought about by the Deregulation Act. The engagement programme to ensure funding is applied in the most effective way, and to help inform how licensing authorities across GM develop and deliver its policies and services, is also welcomed.

Officers support the extension of the emissions compliance deadline to the 31^st December 2026 and consider this allows our licence holders additional time to take part in the engagement programme and await the outcome of those discussions that may result in amendments to the funding offer/criteria. It is also unclear what the offer will be for the Private Hire trade at present.

Members may be concerned about the condition of vehicles that are older, and it is important to note that any extension to the vehicle age limit would not affect the requirement to pass the vehicle compliance test carried out by our authorised vehicle examiners, and to comply with vehicle licence conditions.

The Licensing Service had reviewed the data on the 15^th May 2025 in respect of Hackney Carriages and Private hire vehicles which highlighted the number of vehicles currently over the Council’s Age Policy this is due to the transitional arrangements that have been put in place. The report also contained for reference the other current comparable policies.

The Assistant Director (Public Protection & Resilience) concluded that the report seeked approval to amend the current policy by permitting existing vehicle proprietors of current non complaint hackney carriage and private hire vehicles to make a renewal application after the 1^st January 2026. The non-compliant vehicle would be subject to a compliance test at either of the Council’s approved testing stations. Provided the vehicle passes the compliance test it will be issued with a 12-month licence vehicle licence. The vehicle licence would be granted for a twelve-month period and subject to an additional condition that the non-compliant vehicle is removed from the fleet and replaced with a compliant vehicle no later than the 31^st December 2026.

Delegated decision:

It was agreed that the Licensing and Safety Committee adopted the following amendment (2,3,4,5 and 6) to the existing emission standard and recommends to Full Council that amendment (2,3,4,5 and 6) be approved:

For existing vehicle licence proprietors with a non-complaint vehicle:

2.    A vehicle proprietor of a hackney carriage and private hire vehicle licence that is due for renewal after the 1 January 2026 which is non-compliant with emission standards (EURO 4 Petrol vehicles and EURO 6 diesel vehicles) is permitted to make an application to renew the vehicle licence and provided the vehicle passes its compliance test it will be issued with a 12-month vehicle licence. The vehicle licence would be granted subject to a condition that the non-compliant vehicle is removed from the fleet and replaced with a Euro 4 or 6 compliant vehicle by the 31 December 2026.

3.    Allow existing vehicle licence holders to continue to renew their vehicle licence with the same non-emissions compliant vehicle until the age limit of that vehicle in accordance with the vehicle age policy.

4.    Extend the upper age limit for purpose-built Hackneys and wheelchair accessible Private Hire vehicles from 15 years to 17 years.

5.    Extend the upper age limit for non-wheelchair accessible Private Hire vehicles to 12 years.

6.    To delegate powers to the Head of Public Protection/Licensing Unit Manager and/or the Deputy Licensing Officer to suspend any vehicle licence that has been issued after the 1 January 2027 where the vehicle proprietor(s) have not complied with the condition to replace the non-compliant vehicle with a compliant vehicle by the 31 December 2026.

In addition to the above, Members of the Licensing and Safety Committee agreed delegation to the Head of Public Protection/Licensing Unit Manager and/or the Deputy Licensing Officer in conjunction with the Chair of Licensing & Safety Committee to suspend any vehicle licence that has been issued to a non-complaint vehicle after the 1^st January 2027 where the vehicle proprietor(s) have not complied with the condition of the vehicle licence to replace the non-compliant vehicle with a compliant vehicle by the 4^th January 2027.

The Licensing and Safety Committee also agreed delegation to the Head of Public Protection/Licensing Unit Manager in conjunction with the Chair of Licensing & Safety Committee to amend Council Policy that relates to the transitional arrangements for existing vehicle proprietors who own non-compliant vehicles to enable access to any funding opportunities linked to the GM CAP. Any decisions made would be reported in the Operational Report at a future meeting of the Licensing and Safety Committee.