After Jeremy Hunt’s tax-cutting Autumn Statement, the taxi tax should be next

My job involves interacting with all kinds of people. I go from taking vulnerable kids to school at the start of the day to bringing people home after a good evening at the pub, sometimes too good.

I see every age group from all manner of backgrounds. The old ladies who need me to run them to the supermarket to do their weekly shop or take them for a check-up at the hospital. I know from the anxious glances at the meter as we sit idling away in traffic that people’s budgets are becoming smaller and smaller.

Put simply, this is yet another tax on the British public at a time when the tax burden is already at a post-war high, one that will hurt families, small businesses and vulnerable people who rely on taxis for essential journeys.

The cost of living crisis is real and it is affecting people. That is why I’ve been so worried about the recent High Court ruling that could lead to VAT being slapped on the cost of a cab. I don’t think we can pretend that this would be anything but disastrous for the cab sector and those who rely on us to get about.

We’ve had some extremely challenging years of late and many cab operators are on their knees struggling to recover from Covid. As for those who rely on us, many areas with poor access to public transport already have less than 1 licensed vehicle per 1,000 people.

That’s not to mention the other businesses that rely on us, the pubs in the countryside for whom we bring the customers in and take them home at the end of the night. The same goes for the high street restaurants.

The Government shut these places down in Covid, leaving them languishing at the expense of ever-changing rules and regulation. The least the Government could do would be to make it as easy as possible for them to get off the ground again.

People agree with me. 68% of the public polled recently were opposed to a VAT rise of 20% on minicabs. That’s why today’s announcement by the Government that they will consult on the effect of the verdict of the court ruling is an excellent step in the right direction.

There is no time to waste if we are to stop this unfair and damaging tax being slapped on cabs across the country.

Gareth Cadwallader is a minicab driver from Shrewsbury and spokesperson for Stop the Taxi Tax