On 16 July 2026 the Government confirmed that Staffordshire's ten county, city, district and borough councils will be replaced by two unitary authorities. The southern one merges Lichfield District Council, Stafford Borough Council, East Staffordshire Borough Council, Cannock Chase District Council, Tamworth Borough Council and South Staffordshire Council, and covers 682,775 residents. Shadow elections are due in May 2027, with the new authority taking on full statutory responsibilities from 1 April 2028.
Taxi and private hire licensing is not a county function. It sits with each district or borough council, which sets its own rules on vehicle age, plate display, renewal periods, fees and in-vehicle cameras under the Town Police Clauses Act 1847, the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 and its own adopted policy. Six merging councils therefore means six separate licensing regimes, and they will have to become one.
We read all six policies and fee schedules and set them side by side. As far as we can establish nobody has published this comparison before, so it appears here in full rather than as a summary.
A note on the name. The new southern authority is referred to in the councils' own proposal as "Southern and Mid-Staffordshire", and the Government's decision letter quotes that label. It is not yet a formal name. That will be set by the Structural Changes Order, expected before Parliament in late 2026.
What we foundSix regimes, and how far apart they are
to 12 years
The gap in maximum vehicle age at first licensing. Cannock Chase will not license a standard petrol or diesel car older than 42 months. Tamworth licenses a hackney carriage up to 12 years old. Both rules apply inside the same authority from 2028.
to £3,000
The range of a five-year operator's licence, depending on council and fleet size. Cannock Chase charges £340 to £890. The Wolverhampton-run South Staffordshire scheme runs to £3,000 for a large operator.
South Staffordshire does not license its own taxis. The function has been administered by City of Wolverhampton Council since April 2022, under an arrangement described at the time as an initial three-year period. Wolverhampton will not be part of the new authority.
Five councils already share the same renewal pattern: three years for drivers, one year for vehicles, five years for operators. That gives the new authority an obvious starting point. The outlier is, again, South Staffordshire.
Asked whether an outward-facing dashcam counts as CCTV, the councils that address it give three different answers. Stafford says explicitly that it does not. Lichfield and Wolverhampton regulate both identically. Cannock Chase splits it by where the camera points.
to 2022
The period covered by East Staffordshire's published taxi policy, which appears not to have been replaced. Every other council in the merger is operating under a current one.
Section 1The South Staffordshire problem
Of the six, one is not really in the system at all. South Staffordshire Council's own website states it plainly: "Taxi and Private Hire licensing within South Staffordshire is administrated on behalf of the Council by the City of Wolverhampton Council's Licensing team from April 2022." Applications route to Wolverhampton-operated portals, and Wolverhampton's policy governs.
Contemporaneous reporting in December 2021 described the arrangement as an initial three-year period rather than a permanent transfer. That term would have expired around April 2025. We could find no published document recording an extension, renewal or variation, but the arrangement is demonstrably still running: Wolverhampton's Regulatory Committee report of 14 January 2026, setting fees for 2026-27, states that "The fees throughout this report are to be mirrored for South Staffordshire Council, whose taxi licensing function the Council undertakes on their behalf."
The new authority will inherit an area whose taxi licensing is run by a council that is not part of it, under an arrangement that was never presented as permanent.
That leaves a decision to be made well before April 2028: bring South Staffordshire licensing in-house, continue the Wolverhampton arrangement, or move it elsewhere. It sits on top of harmonising the other five, and it is the one item with a hard external dependency.
Section 2Vehicle age limits and exemptions
The widest gap in the comparison. Every council treats electric and hybrid vehicles more favourably than petrol and diesel, but the incentive takes three different forms: a longer but still finite age limit, no fixed limit at all, or a discounted fee.
| Council | Max age at first licensing | Max age to remain licensed | Electric, hybrid and ULEV | Notable exemptions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lichfield | Petrol or diesel under 8 yrs WAV under 10 yrs Executive under 6 yrs |
Petrol or diesel under 10 yrs WAV under 12 yrs Executive under 8 yrs |
Hybrid or EV under 10 yrs when new, then may continue indefinitely at renewal if it passes a compliance inspection. | No classic or heritage exemption. Executive vehicles may be exempted from displaying the external plate under s75(3). |
| Stafford | Standard under 6 yrs, min. Euro 6 London-cab style or WAV under 8 yrs EV or hybrid saloon under 6 yrs, WAV under 8 yrs |
Standard 12 yrs or 2030, whichever is sooner London-cab style or WAV 14 yrs or 2030 EV, hybrid or hydrogen: no fixed maximum |
No age cap for EV, hybrid or hydrogen vehicles that keep meeting policy standards. Euro 4 banned from April 2026, all ICE-only vehicles phased out by March 2030. | WAV grandfather rights for named proprietors, non-transferable. Novelty and vintage vehicles exempt from the emissions standard. |
| East Staffordshire | Policy sets a 12-month vehicle licence for vehicles under 7 yrs. Purpose-built hackney carriage 10 yrs. | Not stated as a single figure. A replacement hackney carriage must be under 10 yrs per the council's website. WAVs over 5 yrs need compliance testing after six months. | No separate EV or ULEV allowance found in the published policy. | None identified in the published policy. |
| Cannock Chase | Standard under 42 months WAV under 7 yrs EV or hybrid saloon under 7 yrs, WAV under 10 yrs |
No fixed cut-off stated, but vehicles need compliance inspections twice a year once past their sixth birthday. | EV and hybrid vehicles get a materially longer first-licensing allowance, 7 to 10 yrs against the 42-month standard limit. Minimum Euro 6 for new licensing. | s75(3) exemption for prestige or executive private hire vehicles, reviewed periodically and withdrawable. Novelty vehicles are explicitly not exempt from plates or livery. |
| Tamworth | Hackney carriage under 12 yrs Private hire under 10 yrs |
Not renewed once the vehicle reaches the cut-off: 12 yrs hackney, 10 yrs private hire. | No upper age limit at all for electric or hybrid vehicles in either category. Hybrids must also meet wheelchair-accessible specification to qualify as a hackney carriage. | "Exceptional condition" route allows older vehicles subject to extra checks, plus £63.75. Separate private hire executive vehicle route, plus £55. |
| South Staffordshirevia Wolverhampton | Hackney carriage must be brand new when first licensed. Private hire: no fixed minimum stated. | Hackney carriage 15 yrs 6 mths unless ULEV Private hire 11 yrs 6 mths, not re-plated past 12 yrs, unless ULEV |
ULEV status extends maximum age eligibility beyond the standard limits. No blanket Euro 6 mandate found. | Executive or luxury private hire exemption for F-segment saloons in pristine, contract-only use. £75 fee, plate fixed inside the boot lid rather than displayed. |
Section 3Licence renewal periods
The most nearly harmonised area, and the easiest thing on the new authority's list. Five of six already run the same cycle.
| Council | Driver licence | Vehicle licence | Operator licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lichfield | 3 years | 1 year | 5 years |
| Stafford | 3 years. Drivers aged 65 and over must also pass an annual medical. | 1 year | 5 years |
| East Staffordshire | 3 years | 1 year | 5 years |
| Cannock Chase | 3 years, dual hackney and private hire licence | 1 year | 5 years |
| Tamworth | 3 years | 1 year | 5 years |
| South Staffordshirevia Wolverhampton | 1 or 3 years, shortened to 6 months if the driver is not subscribed to the DBS Update Service | Hackney under 16 yrs or private hire under 10 yrs: 1 year. Private hire 10 to 12 yrs: 6 months. | 1 or 5 years, by applicant choice |
Section 4Fees
Fees are published on different cycles and in different formats, and should be confirmed with the council before any formal decision. One schedule appears to contain errors, which is covered below the table.
| Council | Driver licence | Vehicle licence | Operator licence | DBS check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lichfield | New £245 Renewal £220 | New £205 / renewal £185 Executive hire £250 | £370 5-yr, per vehicle, 1 to 5 vehicles | £61.88 plus £16 a year |
| Stafford | Dual 1-yr £200 Dual 3-yr £100 As published, see note | £245 EV or hybrid discount £200 | £185 | £10.60 |
| East Staffordshire | New £365 / renewal £357, 3-yr | New £195 / renewal £178, annual | £498 (1 to 10 vehicles) / £515 (over 10), 5-yr | £64.20 |
| Cannock Chase | 1-yr £129 3-yr £262 | £320 hackney or private hire, including test and plates | £340 (1 to 5 vehicles) to £890 (15+), 5-yr | £40 |
| Tamworth | £259 3-yr, including £112 application fee | Hackney £199 Private hire £205 Plus £63.75 exceptional condition | £503 5-yr | £70.80 |
| South Staffordshirevia Wolverhampton | 1-yr £78 / 3-yr £156 | £175 a year, hackney or private hire. Six-month term once a private hire vehicle passes 10 yrs. | New, any size £1,000 Renewal £250 (1-yr, small) to £3,000 (5-yr, large) | Not itemised separately |
Tamworth's taxi fees sit under Environmental Health rather than Licensing, and the published schedule is still badged "from April 2025". Wolverhampton's 2026-27 figures appear only in a Regulatory Committee appendix titled "Proposed Fees and Charges", with no effective date stated and no public-facing fees page on the council website.
Stafford Borough Council's Fees and Charges 2026/2027, page 11, lists "(a) Dual 1 year licence" at £200.00 and "(b) Dual 3 year licence" at £100.00. The three-year licence costs half what the one-year licence costs.
It does not appear to be an isolated slip. The same table shows a knowledge test at £21.25 against a knowledge test resit at £245.00, and under vehicle licences a licence at £53.00 against a replacement copy at £200.00. Taken together these read as transcription errors in the published schedule rather than deliberate pricing.
We checked these against the source PDF rather than a summary. Anyone budgeting against that schedule should query the figures with Stafford directly.
Section 5Dashcams and in-vehicle CCTV
The most inconsistent area of the six, and not only in the detail. There is a prior question the councils have not settled between them: does a simple outward-facing dashcam count as "CCTV" at all, and does fitting one trigger the same approval, data protection and signage duties as a full in-cab system that records passengers?
Three different answers are in force inside what will shortly be one authority. Stafford rules dashcams out of the framework entirely, stating that they "are not suitable for this purpose; they will not be classed as a CCTV system", so a driver may run one with no council process at all. Cannock Chase splits it by where the camera points: an outward-facing dashcam is unrestricted, but one that also shows the interior or displays road footage on a screen "will need to be removed". Lichfield and Wolverhampton draw no distinction, treating a dashcam and CCTV as one regulated category whichever way the lens faces.
| Council | Approval or notification | Audio recording | ICO registration | Signage | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lichfield | Written council approval required before fitting (Appendix 12) | Banned by default. Panic-button exception only, with extra signage while active. | Mandatory, proof sent to the council before use | Mandatory, inside and outside, with the data controller's contact details | No fixed period. Produced to police within 48 hrs of request. |
| Stafford | Notification plus insurer agreement. Dashcams excluded entirely. | Not addressed | General DPA 2018 and ICO duty, no council-specific check | Not addressed | Not specified |
| East Staffordshire | Not established. No CCTV or camera provisions were found in the accessible portion of East Staffordshire's published policy. This is recorded as unverified rather than as an absence of rules, and should be confirmed with the council. | ||||
| Cannock Chase | Written agreement from the Licensing Unit, plus notification to the insurer | Specific-threat trigger only, kept as short as possible | Required, plus an encrypted, password-locked hard drive | Not addressed | Not addressed |
| Tamworth | Written notification, not approval | Not addressed | Referenced generally, no explicit requirement | Mandatory, "prominently displayed" | Not specified |
| South Staffordshirevia Wolverhampton | No sign-off to install, but audio-capable systems need professional installation plus a certificate filed with Licensing | Panic switch only, continuous audio unlawful. Runs 10+ min after shutdown, stops within 1 min of deactivation. | Mandatory, renewed annually, evidenced continuously | Council-issued stickers only, showing data controller, contact and ICO number | 31 days, unless already shared for a live request |
Wolverhampton's regime, which governs South Staffordshire, is the most developed of the six. Its Taxi CCTV Policy dates from October 2020 and was last revised in June 2026. In March 2025 its Regulatory Committee approved an amendment permitting panic-switch audio recording, following a consultation in which 92% of respondents supported panic-switch audio and 96% agreed audio recording would better protect drivers from passengers. The policy cites an ICO enforcement case against Southampton City Council as the reason continuous audio is unlawful, and expressly prohibits uploading footage to social media.
Section 6Plate display and what a licensed vehicle looks like
Broadly similar, and different in the detail that matters if you are trying to tell a licensed vehicle from an unlicensed one. Private hire vehicles carry a rear or boot-mounted plate, hackney carriages display an illuminated roof sign reading "TAXI", and private hire vehicles are barred from using the words "taxi" or "cab". Beyond that, the specifics are local.
Lichfield
Rear plate fixed externally so it cannot be removed without tools, plus interior rear-window signage and a council-issued windscreen sign. Hackney carriages need an illuminated roof "TAXI" sign, and private hire vehicles may not display "TAXI", "TAX" or "CAB". Enhanced DBS with mandatory Update Service subscription, a driver assessment rather than a formal knowledge test, DVLA Group 2 medical standard, and vehicles must seat four to eight passengers.
Stafford
Hackney carriages must be white or black and wheelchair accessible, and private hire vehicles must not be white or black. Executive hire vehicles are exempted from the external plate under s75(3) and instead carry a Notice of Exemption, with the vehicle licence and driver's badge available for inspection. DBS status is checked every six months. The knowledge test covers the Highway Code, safeguarding, English literacy and local routes.
East Staffordshire
The published policy states that the council has set standards for signage including "the permitted position of licence plates" and "colours to be used for licence plates", but the colours themselves are not stated in the accessible portion of the document. We have not published a colour here rather than guess at one. The policy also records exemptions for funeral vehicles, voluntary and ambulance vehicles, and vehicles used solely for weddings.
Cannock Chase
Hackney carriage plates are mounted horizontally at bumper height. Private hire vehicles carry a windscreen plate, a removable rear plate for weddings and funerals, and door signage capped at 50mm lettering. Other conditions include a ban on part-worn tyres, a mandatory spare tyre, free carriage of assistance dogs and a ban on hand-held phone use.
Tamworth
The rear licence plate must be fixed outside on the rear of the vehicle, positioned so the registration mark is not obscured and the plate is clearly visible in daylight from the road behind. Vehicles must not resemble the other category, so no livery confusion between hackney and private hire, and hackney carriages require an illuminated roof sign. CCTV is permitted with mandatory "CCTV in use" signage.
South Staffordshire, via Wolverhampton
Private hire vehicles display an external rear plate plus rear-window and door stickers capped at A4, and hackney carriages carry an illuminated roof sign. Full vehicle-wrap advertising is normally only considered for a good cause and needs prior written approval, excluding political, religious, ethnic, sexual, indecent or offensive content, tobacco and alcohol branding, and anything suggesting the vehicle is a hackney carriage. Capacity is capped at nine seats including the driver, eight for stretch limousines.
Section 7What harmonisation will actually mean
Merging six regimes into one is not a paperwork exercise. It produces winners and losers among working drivers, vehicle proprietors and operators, and it requires the new authority to make a series of choices before or shortly after it takes on the function in April 2028.
Vehicle age. A single standard has to be picked somewhere between Cannock Chase's 42-month first-licensing limit and Tamworth's 12-year hackney allowance, or category-specific rules retained, as several councils already do for wheelchair-accessible and electric vehicles. Whichever way it lands, a substantial number of drivers face either an unplanned vehicle replacement or a competitor who did not have to make one.
The South Staffordshire question. Whether to bring licensing in-house, continue the Wolverhampton arrangement or move it elsewhere. This one has a lead time and cannot be left to 2028.
Fees. Five-year operator's licences currently range from £340 to £3,000 across the six areas. Reconciling that means reconciling the underlying licensing budgets of six legacy councils, not just picking a number.
Renewal cycles. The easy one. Five of six already match, so the pattern is obvious. The only real question is what happens to the Wolverhampton-run system's link between renewal length and DBS Update Service subscription.
Livery and capacity. Stafford's black-and-white restriction on hackney carriages, Cannock Chase's 50mm lettering cap, South Staffordshire's more permissive advertising wraps: these have to resolve into one visual identity for a merged fleet, which is the change passengers will actually notice.
Policy currency. One of the six is operating on a published policy badged 2019 to 2022. Whatever the new authority adopts, it will be starting from a set of documents in noticeably different states of repair.
Free download · PDF The full comparison, including every table and all source citationsQuestionsCommon questions
- Which council licenses taxis in Lichfield?
- Lichfield District Council licenses hackney carriages, private hire vehicles, drivers and operators in the Lichfield district. From 1 April 2028 that function passes to the new southern unitary authority.
- Which councils are merging, and when?
- Lichfield District Council, Stafford Borough Council, East Staffordshire Borough Council, Cannock Chase District Council, Tamworth Borough Council and South Staffordshire Council merge into a single southern unitary authority. Shadow elections are due in May 2027 and the new authority takes on full statutory responsibilities on 1 April 2028.
- Who licenses taxis in South Staffordshire?
- City of Wolverhampton Council. South Staffordshire Council delegated the function to Wolverhampton in April 2022, and Wolverhampton's licensing policy and fees apply there.
- What is the maximum age for a licensed taxi in Staffordshire?
- There is no single answer, because each council sets its own limit. A standard petrol or diesel private hire vehicle can be first licensed up to 42 months old in Cannock Chase, up to 6 years in Stafford, and up to 8 years in Lichfield, while Tamworth licenses a hackney carriage up to 12 years old.
- Do I have to accept card payment in a licensed vehicle?
- It varies by council and is not consistent across the six. Check the requirement with the council that issued the licence.
MethodSources and caveats
This comparison was compiled from each council's published taxi and private hire licensing policy and its fees and charges schedule, read directly rather than from secondary summaries. Every figure was independently verified against the councils' live documents on 5 September 2026. Policies are dated differently by council, so the comparison reflects what each one currently publishes rather than a common vintage.
Fee figures should be treated as indicative and confirmed directly with the council before being relied on for any formal decision. The following points are unresolved and are recorded here rather than smoothed over.
- Stafford's published driver licence fees appear to contain errors. A three-year licence is published at £100 and a one-year at £200, alongside other apparent inconsistencies in the same table. Verified against the source PDF. Should be queried with Stafford directly.
- East Staffordshire's published policy is badged 2019 to 2022. We could not locate a more recent published policy. Camera and CCTV provisions, card payment requirements and plate colours could not be established from the accessible portion of that document, and are recorded here as unverified rather than as absent.
- The South Staffordshire delegation has no published end date. It was described in 2021 as an initial three-year period. No document recording an extension or renewal could be found, though the arrangement is demonstrably still operating.
- Wolverhampton's 2026-27 fees are formally titled "Proposed". No effective date is stated and there is no public-facing fees page on the council website.
- Tamworth's fee schedule is badged April 2025 and no newer one was found. Its 2023-2028 policy PDF is not linked from either of the council's taxi pages and carries no printed approval date.
- The new authority's name is not settled. "Southern and Mid-Staffordshire" is the councils' proposal label, quoted in the Government's decision letter. The formal name will be set by the Structural Changes Order.
Primary sources
- The reorganisation decisionWritten Ministerial Statement HCWS286 and the Secretary of State's decision letter to Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent council leaders, both 16 July 2026. Population figures from the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent LGR programme hub.questions-statements.parliament.uk · gov.uk · staffordshirestokelgr.org.uk
- Lichfield District CouncilHackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy 2025, approved 11 February 2025 and effective 1 April 2025, including Appendix 12 "Audio and video recording in licensed vehicles". Vehicle and driver licence fee pages, and the fee change notice of 9 March 2026.lichfielddc.gov.uk
- Stafford Borough CouncilTaxi Licensing Policy and Licence Conditions 2025, approved 9 September 2025 and implemented from 16 September 2025. Fees and Charges 2026/2027, payable from 1 April 2026, taxi fees at page 11.staffordbc.gov.uk
- East Staffordshire Borough CouncilHackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy 2019 to 2022, and the current taxi licensing fees page.eaststaffsbc.gov.uk
- Cannock Chase District CouncilHackney Carriage/Private Hire Driver, Vehicle and Operator Licensing Policy Including Licence Conditions, adopted by full Council 8 November 2023 and amended June 2024. Fees and Charges 2026/2027, taxi fees at page 15.cannockchasedc.gov.uk
- Tamworth Borough CouncilHackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy 2023-2028, Hackney Carriage Vehicle Licence Conditions, and Environmental Health Fees and Charges from April 2025.tamworth.gov.uk
- South Staffordshire Council and City of Wolverhampton CouncilSouth Staffordshire's taxi licensing page confirming the April 2022 delegation. Wolverhampton's Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing Policy, approved 1 October 2025 and revised 3 June 2026; its Taxi CCTV Policy, created 12 October 2020 and revised 3 June 2026; the Regulatory Committee report on CCTV audio recording of 12 March 2025; and the fees report of 14 January 2026.sstaffs.gov.uk · wolverhampton.gov.uk