The Welsh angle to Wolverhampton is rarely mentioned, but it gets a fair enough run here.
But, as the figures for the whole of Wales suggest, in the grand scheme the numbers aren't particularly significant, at least ignoring micro-local distortions
But some interesting stuff about the devolution angle.
Welsh taxi law reform stalled as figures show Wolverhampton licences across Waleshttps://wrexham.com/news/welsh-taxi-law ... 00202.htmlFewer than 20 private hire drivers licensed by City of Wolverhampton Council live in North Wales, according to figures obtained by Wrexham.com.
Yet one postcode district in the Cynon Valley has 58 Wolverhampton-licensed private hire vehicles registered to addresses within it, nearly ten times as many as the whole of North Wales put together.
The CF45 postcode, which covers Mountain Ash and surrounding communities, accounts for more than four in ten of the 131 Wolverhampton-licensed private hire vehicles registered to Welsh addresses, alongside fewer than five drivers.
The figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act and show 17 Wolverhampton-licensed private hire drivers and six private hire vehicles registered across the LL postcode area, which covers most of North Wales.
Wrexham.com placed the FOI after spotting several Wolverhampton taxis locally in recent months, and then after mentioning it elsewhere was anecdotally told of issues in the south that potentially could be heading this way.
In each of the four Wrexham postcode districts, LL11, LL12, LL13 and LL14, Wolverhampton council said the number of drivers was “fewer than five”. Figures between one and four were suppressed to avoid identifying individuals.
We also asked slightly wider – to see if the taxis spotted could be from Chester / Shropshire way and just travelling over the border, or areas that cover the border. No Wolverhampton-licensed drivers or vehicles were registered in the CH4 to CH8 districts covering Flintshire and the Chester border area, or in the SY13 and SY14 districts that take in parts of the Maelor.
Wolverhampton has become the focus of a UK row over so-called cross-border taxi licensing. Department for Transport figures show the authority had 37,967 licensed private hire vehicles on 1 April 2026, more than any council in England outside London, with 96% of its licences held by drivers who live outside the city.
The 37,967 licensed private hire vehicles in Wolverhampton is around 135 for every 1,000 residents there – against an English average of 4.9, and nearly six times as many as Bradford, the next largest licensing authority in England.
Councils in Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire and Portsmouth are among those to have raised concerns about out-of-area vehicles operating under different standards to those set locally. A Freedom of Information disclosure to the BBC found 9,000 Wolverhampton-licensed drivers living in Greater Manchester.
The new figures suggest the practice is on a far smaller scale in Wales so far. Across the country as a whole, 195 private hire drivers and 131 private hire vehicles licensed by Wolverhampton were registered to Welsh addresses as of late September.
Cardiff accounts for the largest share of drivers, with more than 60 across the city’s postcode districts, and 47 were registered in the Newport districts NP19 and NP20. No drivers or vehicles were registered anywhere in the LD postcode area covering Powys.
The enforcement gap
Cross-border working is legal under licensing law that applies across England and Wales, and a vehicle licensed in England can carry out pre-booked work anywhere in Wales. Welsh council enforcement officers have no powers to act against vehicles licensed by English authorities operating in their areas.
Taxi licensing was devolved to Wales under the Wales Act 2017, and the previous Welsh Government published a White Paper in 2023 proposing national standards and new enforcement powers. A Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Bill did not appear in the First Minister’s legislative programme announced in July.
Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates, Member of the Senedd for Fflint Wrecsam, told the Senedd on 14 July: “Another Bill I’d hoped to see in today’s statement was a taxi and private hire vehicles Bill, which, as many Members will know, was developed as a white paper under the Welsh Labour Government”
As readers will recall a month ago we had a chance to speak to Mr Skates ( eg. this topic), as we are with all local MSs, on a range of issues and asked him about the possible taxi problem. This pre-dated the FOI responses being received.
He said then, “It is incredibly complicated, and it’s largely owing to a fragmented system, we were seeking to address it through legislation. We planned to introduce a taxi bill based on the white paper that we published, and at the centre of that would have been the commitment to end cross-bordering, where you basically have instead of taxis that can come from anywhere, you have a registration system that’s really robust. So you don’t overcommit taxi services in any one given area. Instead, you make sure that there is full regulation.
“Now, the added bonus of that is that it doesn’t just protect the income of taxi drivers within that that council area. It also provides opportunities to drive up standards, particularly in the realm of passenger protection
“The problem was particularly acute in Cardiff and Newport, and we were aware of some issues in Swansea, but very few issues in Wrexham. Nonetheless, there were, and now it appears that it’s growing”
Marc Jones Member of the Senedd for Fflint Wrecsam said: “The huge amount of licences issued by Wolverhampton Council raised questions – are they doing due diligence? Are they cashing in? Why are peoplr choosing to get licences there when they live in Wales? Something isn’t right.
“I’d urge Wrexham Council to ensure that any taxi operating in the borough is correctly licensed.”
The House of Commons Transport Committee is carrying out a separate inquiry into taxi and private hire licensing in England, including cross-border working.
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