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Transport for London's long-awaited taxi plan is light on detail and vague on actions and timings. LTDA boss Steve McNamara has led the criticism, while the private hire sector barely gets a mention in the 14-point document.
TfL’s new taxi and private hire plan slammed as ‘missed opportunity’
Transport for London has released its Taxi and Private Hire Action Plan 2025, but the response has been decidedly muted.
The plan concentrates mainly on the needs of the hackney cab market rather than private hire, but this is not enough for London Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA) general secretary Steve McNamara, who said the plan was “a missed opportunity”, and the 14-point plan document lacked any meaningful strategy.
The 14-point plan focuses on including safety improvements, increased accessibility, and efforts to modernise the industry, but it is light on detail and contains no timeframe in which improvements could be made.
McNamara said: “This Action Plan is a missed opportunity. It’s filled with platitudes about the importance of licensed taxis and recognises the serious challenges we face, yet it sets out no real plans to actually address those challenges.”
He continued: “Despite the problems the industry is facing being repeatedly reiterated to TfL and the Mayor, instead of actions, what we see are the same hollow promises to ‘work with us’, ‘consult’, ‘encourage’ and ‘lobby’ for things the government has already made up its mind on, with no concrete action to support hard-working taxi drivers.”
Among the points within the plan are a commitment that black taxis continue to have access to bus lanes wherever possible and encouraging boroughs to grant taxis access to bus lanes on borough roads.
The plan said TfL would “work with the Government to secure greater powers to make taxi and private hire services even safer”. This includes a vague request for “powers to tackle cross-border hiring”, without specifying what problems are encountered, and calls for powers to issue fixed penalty notices and regulate taxi booking companies – presumably referring to ride-hailing operators such as Uber and Bolt.
The plan also calls for improved training to be offered to taxi and private hire drivers, including new online voluntary training courses and new Disability Equality Training that will be designed in partnership with disability stakeholders. Online voluntary training courses will cover a range of topics such as safety advice and conflict management, customer service skills and health and wellbeing advice, in response to calls from taxi and private hire representatives.
The plan calls for “further amendments” to The Knowledge to help attract new people to join the taxi trade, though this does not contain any detailed plan as to how the test could be simplified or shortened. TfL is reviewing and updating the ‘Blue Book’ guide to The Knowledge, and claims it “continues to discuss options” with taxi trade representatives to make better use of technology.
The plan will also review the optimum allocation, position and design of taxi ranks, including at public transport hubs.
No financial help is offered – only a vague claim that TfL would “make the case to the Government” to continue the plug-in taxi grant, reduce VAT from public charge points and remove VAT from the purchase of taxis and designated wheelchair-accessible private hire vehicles.
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said the new plan is designed to support the trade through a challenging period: He said: “London’s black taxis have a rich history and play a vital role in keeping London moving and providing an accessible door-to-door service, and I want to ensure they keep doing so for years to come.
“At a time when the taxi trade and private hire industry face huge pressures, this new action plan will help to bolster and protect them, retaining and attracting more drivers to the trade and ensuring high safety standards for both passengers and drivers, building a better, fairer London for all.”
