The latest DfT stats to March 2019 are out
There are several different relevant pages on the DfT's website, but this seems to be the main one, with links to the main report and the statistical tables:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistic ... gland-2019
Don't know if life's long enough to devote much time to analysing this, but some interesting stats on page 6 of the main report.
This shows that between 2018 and 2019, biggest increase in licensed vehicles was in Lewes - up 91.6%
This was presumably due to Lewes-plated *HCs* working for Uber in Brighton.Wolverhampton up 62.3% - obviously in this case it's *PHVs* working cross-border that's driving the increase here.
Another big increase is Aylesbury Vale - up 64.3%, but haven't a clue what's going on there
Biggest *decrease* in numbers in Rossendale - down 49.9%. Obviously that's the obverse of the Lewes scenario - they've tightened up on HCs doing private hire work elsewhere. 'Intended use' policies and tighter badge and vehicle spec, wasn't it?
Think they've done similar in Lewes since the period covered by the stats, so presumably the Lewes figures could show a similar *downward* trend next year, although no doubt Sussex can fill us in on that one.
Telford & Wrekin also down 33.9%, which relates to what was said in yesterday's thread about Wolverhampton-plated cars being used there. Think that's where Go Carz operates, and they've been encouraging drivers to licence in Wolverhampton?
Another big drop is St Albans - down 37.5%. I'm guessing some kind of cross-border badging at work here too
