Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Fees & Charges

Overview

North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) would like to hear your views about proposed new fees and charges relating to hackney carriage and private hire driver licences, vehicle licences, and private hire operator licences.  

Objections regarding the proposed new fees should be made in writing by 10 December 2025 and emailed to the Licensing Team at taxilicensing.kbc@northnorthants.gov.uk or by post to North Northamptonshire Council, Sheerness House, 41 Meadow Road, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN16 8TL.

If no objections are made or if the objections made are withdrawn the proposed fees shown below will take effect on 11 December 2025. Any objections received, if not withdrawn, will be considered by the Licensing and Appeals Committee and the fees, with or without modification, shall come into force on 26 January 2026.

Note.

1. Driver medical examinations, knowledge tests, advanced driving tests, DBS certification and any other testing or requirements of obtaining a driver licence are not included in the above fees.
2. Vehicle testing at Council-nominated garages and MOT testing is not included in the above fees.

Why we are setting new fees and charges

Hackney Carriage and Private Hire licensing fees should reflect the true administration costs incurred by the Council.  If these costs are not met by licence fee payers, they must be borne by the Council as a whole (i.e. taxpayers).

Different fees were charged in each of the four former authority areas in North Northamptonshire prior to 3 November 2025.  These fees, which reflected the historical costs of administering licensing in those areas, have not been increased since April 2020.

Recognising that licensing administration is now delivered on behalf of NNC, a council-wide licensing policy is in place, and a single hackney carriage licensing zone operates across North Northamptonshire, it is necessary to review all fees and charges to ensure these reflect current application and licensing arrangements and costs.  

To minimise the financial impact on existing licence holders, the Council proposes to stagger the increase in fees for the main licence types by only introducing half of the required uplift to the driver, vehicle, and operator (new or renewal) application fees at this time. The Council will levy these reduced fees until the end of March 2027. 

The proposed fees for driver, vehicle and operator (new or renewal) applications do not therefore reflect the true cost of administering these licence types and only half of the required increase has been applied. The fees implemented in 2027 will therefore need to recover the remainder of the costs of administering the licences and will be calculated to reflect the full costs and overheads figures applicable at that time.

Until the new fees and charges can be determined following consultation, interim fees apply to ensure parity and fairness for the licensed trade.  The interim fees were set at the minimum fee currently charged by any of the four former authority areas and do not allow for full cost recovery.  

The Licensing and Appeals Committee will determine fees and charges for other application types, such as replacement driver badges, transfer of vehicle licences, and replacement vehicles on 20 January 2026.  These new fees taking effect from 26 January 2026.

How the proposed new fees are calculated

The fees and charges are calculated on a full cost and overheads recovery basis.  This means that salary costs, which are based on the salary band/s of the team member undertaking the administration and decision-making activity in question multiplied by the length of time it takes to complete the activity makes up an element of the fee. The recovery of non-pay costs incurred in delivering the taxi licensing service such as Legal and Democratic Services, Customer Service, and IT costs comprise the remainder of the fee.

Keeping fees and charges under review

The Council cannot make a profit from licence fees and there must be a carry forward of any surplus, but there can also be recovery of any deficit.  The fees will be reviewed annually to ensure they remain reasonable and proportionate and to avoid a surplus or deficit in future years.

The reconciliation of any surplus in income or deficit recovery will take place over a three-year cycle and any surplus/deficit under each part of the licensing regimes is only applied to the part of the system from which it has been raised/lost. 

While future rebates or reductions in some fees may arise, it should be noted that these may not be significant because the fees and charges are structured to reflect the cost of administering licences and these administrative processes and arrangements are unlikely to vary substantially year-on-year, whereas related costs are likely to increase in that same period.  Surpluses may also be reinvested back into the service to support improvements.