A report before Reading Borough Council's Licensing Applications Committee asks councillors to approve a six-week public consultation on limited changes to the hackney carriage and private hire licensing policy. It is on the agenda for 6.30pm on Thursday 5 November 2026, in the Council Chamber at the Civic Centre on Bridge Street. The same report asks that every private hire vehicle already licensed stay on the fleet, and that a vehicle new to the fleet be at least Euro 5b, until the replies are considered and any revised policy is adopted. The outcome would return to the committee in 2027. The papers are the request for those decisions.
Hackney carriage and private hire representatives have raised economic pressure, vehicle supply and other difficulties in meeting the policy brought in this year. Officers asked the Reading Taxi Association and the Reading Private Hire Association to set out the parts that concerned them. Consultation would be confined to private hire emissions and age, hackney carriage emissions and age, hackney carriage vehicle specifications, one driver penalty-points condition for both trades, a hackney carriage wheelchair condition, and private hire door signs.
The rules in force
The current policy followed an eight-week consultation, with 2,178 comments from 137 people and four drop-in sessions with the trade. Reading Borough Council's licensing policy page states that the committee approved it on 12 February 2026 and that it took effect on 13 February 2026. Amended private hire vehicle conditions apply to grants and renewals from that date, and a licence already issued runs until renewal. From 13 February 2026 the council stopped issuing a separate school-transport vehicle licence, so those vehicles need a private hire vehicle licence when they are renewed. The page also states that door signs are to replace roof signs, and that existing door or roof signs continue until the council can take orders for the new signs.
Emissions and years licensed
The trade cited the Department for Transport's taxi and private hire best practice guidance of November 2023, which is written for licensing authorities. Any change to Reading's age and emissions rules would be the council's own decision. The proposal would judge vehicles on emissions, wheelchair access, cost and availability, and on how long the council had licensed them, with officers checking wear and condition.
A private hire vehicle that has not been licensed before must now be an ultra-low emission vehicle, at or below 75g/km of CO2, and under five years old. The maximum age is 15 years, after which the vehicle leaves the fleet. Officers found enough vehicles on the market for between four and six passengers. Seven-passenger vehicles and wheelchair-accessible vehicles are harder to obtain, including some used for home-to-school transport.
The timetable for consultation would run from the date a later committee approved it. Vehicles already licensed could stay until the new emissions rules on 1 January 2028. A vehicle new to the fleet would have to be at least Euro 5b. An ultra-low emission vehicle could remain for 18 years from the date Reading Borough Council first licensed it.
From 1 January 2028, a licensed vehicle below Euro 5b would leave when its licence expired. Every vehicle would have to be at least Euro 5b and could stay for 15 years from first licensing by the council. An ultra-low emission vehicle could stay for 18 years.
From 31 October 2028, a vehicle new to the fleet would have to be at least Euro 6. Euro 5b and Euro 6 vehicles could stay for 15 years from first licensing, and ultra-low emission vehicles for 18 years.
From 31 October 2030, a licensed Euro 5b private hire vehicle would leave when its licence expired. A vehicle new to the fleet would have to be ultra-low emission, with a maximum of 18 years. A Euro 6 vehicle already licensed could stay for 15 years from first licensing. Removing Euro 5b vehicles as licences expire is set out as a stepped reduction through to the end of October 2031.
Once a private hire vehicle reached 12 years old, a licensing officer would inspect it against the council's fitness standards at the next renewal, and at every renewal after that until it left the fleet. More inspections would follow, and the fee would be set in the ordinary fees timetable. The request to consult leaves that fee for the later decision.
A hackney carriage already licensed at Euro 5b is limited to 15 years of age. A replacement must be under eight years old and at least Euro 5b, and can remain until it is 12. From 1 October 2028, the current policy requires a replacement to be ultra-low emission and under seven years old, with an age limit of 15 and up to three further years where the vehicle is in exceptional condition.
The hackney carriage proposal would apply from the date the committee approved it in 2027. Every vehicle would be at least Euro 5b. Euro 5b and Euro 6 vehicles could stay for 15 years from first licensing by the council, and ultra-low emission vehicles for 18 years. From 31 October 2028 a vehicle new to the fleet would be at least Euro 6. From 31 October 2030, Euro 5b hackney carriages would leave as their licences expired, a new vehicle would have to be ultra-low emission, and a Euro 6 vehicle already licensed could stay for 15 years from first licensing. The test would be emissions and years licensed, with no maximum vehicle age. Euro 5b hackney carriages could remain into October 2031. The yearly officer inspection would begin at 12 years old.
Vehicles leaving the fleet
On current data, the age rules would remove 24 private hire vehicles in 2026 under the 15-year limit, then 113 in 2027, 63 in 2028, 47 in 2029, 54 in 2030 and 89 in 2031, each of those later years under a 12-year limit. The emissions proposal would remove 30 vehicles below Euro 5b on 1 January 2028 and 58 Euro 5b vehicles on 31 October 2030.
For hackney carriages, the papers give 24 removals on 1 October 2028, 36 in 2029, 62 in 2030 and 8 in 2031, each under the 15-year age limit. The proposal would remove 82 Euro 5b hackney carriages on 31 October 2030. The age rules would take a substantial number of vehicles off over the next few years. The emissions proposal would take fewer off, with most of those removals in 2030.
Which hackney carriages qualify
The specification follows the Public Carriage Office Conditions of Fitness, adapted for Reading, covering dimensions, an integrated taxi roof sign, a partition, an intercom and a turning circle. The models that meet it are the LTi TX4, the LTi LEVC and the Mercedes Vito. Of those three, only the Mercedes Vito can carry the larger electric wheelchairs. London Electric Vehicle Company vehicles cannot take those larger modern chairs, and sufficient LTi TX4 and Mercedes Vito vehicles remain for the demand.
A Reading Borough Council hackney carriage standards of fitness specification is proposed, so that other wheelchair-accessible models can be licensed, including the fully electric and hybrid Ford MAXiCab. Amending the turning circle requirement would also allow newer Mercedes Vito models.
Penalty points and door signs
Condition 6.4 requires a driver notified to take an enhanced DBS check or a DVLA check to provide all the information within 14 days so the check can be carried out. The penalty is six points. The wording has been read as a demand to finish the enhanced DBS check within 14 days. The proposed condition would require the information within 14 days of the notice, so that the DBS check can be started or the DVLA check can be done, still with six penalty points.
Condition 15.5 requires a driver to carry a wheelchair user unless the vehicle is too small to do so safely, and then to give reasonable assistance towards another suitable hackney carriage. The penalty is 12 points. The trade has questioned what reasonable assistance means. Under the proposed wording, refusing a wheelchair user when the vehicle is large enough would still carry 12 points. Where the vehicle is too small, the driver would give reasonable help so the passenger can identify which hackney carriages the wheelchair fits.
Private hire licence holders must display the licence details on the rear passenger doors. The panels must include the words "Private Hire, Advance Bookings Only" and the licence plate number, printed at least 2.5cm high. An operator sticker may be displayed on the front doors. Trade representatives want the door-sticker requirement removed, roof signs kept, and magnetic door signs allowed where there is no roof sign. The recommendation keeps an adhesive sticker. A roof sign makes a private hire vehicle look like a hackney carriage available for immediate hire. A magnetic sign can be lost, stolen or fall off. The council's plate supplier has produced a prototype that can remain for five years and is made to come off without damaging the paintwork. The supplier has warned that paint around the sticker may fade with the rest of the vehicle, leaving the surface underneath unfaded. While those stickers are still being bought, owners may use a roof sign or their own door stickers, which may not match the council's.
The interim rule
Reading Borough Council declared a climate emergency on 26 February 2019. Easing age requirements could make the commitment to a net-zero carbon borough by 2030 harder to reach. The papers treat the licensed fleet as one of the borough's most visible public transport services, and describe the debate as the timing and speed of each stage.
The first hackney carriage removals in the figures fall in 2028, so a delay is treated as immaterial for that fleet. Private hire needs an interim decision because a vehicle new to the fleet must now be ultra-low emission and older vehicles come off at 15 years. The recommendation is that licensed private hire vehicles stay on the fleet, and that a vehicle new to the fleet be at least Euro 5b, until any revised policy is adopted. The consultation timetable would keep that Euro 5b minimum for new vehicles until 1 January 2028.
If councillors agree the consultation, it would run for six weeks. A report on the replies, with any revised policy, would come back in 2027 for adoption. Licences granted from the day after a new policy was approved would carry the revised rules.