Black cabs face extinction unless rules change, say London mayor contenders
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Version 0 of 1. The two men likely to go head to head in the battle to be London’s mayor next year have said that the capital’s black cabs will become extinct unless the authorities intervene. Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate in parliament, Zac Goldsmith, who is odds-on to be elected as the Conservative party’s candidate for London mayor, and Sadiq Khan, who was selected as Labour’s candidate on Friday, called for changes to the regulation of taxi companies to preserve the black cab. Goldsmith, who has been MP for Richmond Park since 2010, said the arrival of the taxi smartphone app Uber had “turned the system on its head” and could make black cabs “extinct in a matter of years”. “I think nothing personally of depositing any one of my children in a black cab at any time knowing absolutely that they’d be safe,” he said. “And it’s hard to put a number on all that, but it is worth something and the tragedy is that their days could well be numbered.” He added: “I’ve been told recently by people who think of themselves as free marketeers that we shouldn’t intervene; we should let progress have its way – we should let the market decide,” said Goldsmith. “But it’s not an honest position to take for the simple reason that the black cab trade is not a free market. Costs are piled onto the black cab trade by regulation.” While Khan agreed that the survival of the black cab was under threat, he disagreed with Goldsmith that the problem should be addressed by cutting regulation, arguing instead that both Transport for London and the government had failed to regulate the new entrants to the market to ensure they operate fairly. “Rather than a race to the bottom in deregulating the black cab, shouldn’t there be innovation of regulation of the private hire vehicles and Uber in particular to make sure there is a level playing field?” Khan, who has been MP for Tooting since 2005, said the number of drivers licensed by TfL had fallen by over 500 in the last year to around 25,000, with the number of applicants applying to be taxi drivers and taking the “knowledge” – the tough examination that drivers must pass in order to get a black cab licence – at its lowest in 20 years. He urged the government to bring forward legislation which provided a clear definition to protect the distinction between taxis and private hire vehicles. |