Oxford taxis and private hire vehicles must meet ultra-low emissions standard by 2026

Taxis and private hire vehicles in Oxford will need to meet an ultra-low emission standard from the start of 2026 after the City Council rejected a plea to delay the plan by 12 months.

From January 1, 2026, all vehicles must adhere to ULEV standards, which means tailpipe emissions of no more than 75g/km of CO2. Non-compliant vehicles will have to pay £8 per day to enter the Oxford ULEZ.

The council had already agreed in January to delay an original plan for the new standards to apply from January 2025, but the City of Oxford Licenced Taxicab Association (COLTA) had asked for the policy to be held back until January 2027 to give drivers time to replace non-compliant cars.

COLTA secretary Sajad Khan said: “As a trade, we don't think the one year compromise was a balanced judgment of the facts available to all of us.” He highlighted the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the city’s taxi drivers, saying they had “lost four productive years”. Since the pandemic, the trade had suffered due to the “unimaginable rise in living costs due to the financial crisis and high interest rates”.

The taxi association also argued that the introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and the closure of Botley Road had created huge disruption and caused drivers’ earnings to reduce “drastically”.

But Louise Upton, cabinet member for planning and healthier communities, said that the council had to balance “the very real needs of the taxi trade against the health needs of our residents”, and that the original extension of one year was “a compromised solution that seemed about right”.

However, in a Council consultation, an overwhelming majority (82%) of respondents said the taxi and PHV trade should be granted a three-year extension until January 2028, but the Council dismissed this out of hand.

A council spokesperson added that roughly a third of licensed Hackney Carriages in the city had moved from diesel to ULEV-compliant hybrid-electric LEVC vehicles.