Member

Thirdly, as the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, observed, this measure would impose a significant and potentially unbearable financial burden on individual taxi drivers and the taxi trade as a whole. We know that wheelchair-accessible vehicles cost more up front and can be more expensive to run. Vehicle prices vary but can range from £35,000 to £65,000, meaning that implementing this amendment could impose an additional cost to move the 26,000 non-wheelchair accessible taxis to accessible vehicles. It is our view that requiring the remaining non-wheelchair accessible vehicles to be wheelchair-accessible is likely to result in considerably fewer taxis for everybody to use.