Taxi families visit Brussels to petition MEPs

A group of widows and partners of deceased taxi-drivers travelled to Brussels yesterday to highlight the hardship caused to some families by the deregulation of the taxi industry.

The members of a group called FAIR (Families Advocate Immediate Redress) will address the European Parliament's committee on petitions tomorrow.

The group's spokeswoman, Ms Cathy Darling, said the group hoped to gain some recognition of the "severe hardship caused to hundreds of women and children" as a result of deregulation.

She said many taxi-drivers had paid an average of £85,000 for taxi licences before deregulation in November 2000. Overnight, these licences were devalued as a new fee of £5,000 was established.

Ms Darling said drivers were now burdened with 20-year loans to repay the debt. "This is the ultimate form of negative equity," she said.

Older taxi-drivers had believed the rental value of their licences would act as a pension for their wives if they died, but now families were left destitute.

"Homes are having repossession orders prepared against them. Families are not able to cope. Widows are left to rear their children without their rental income," she said.

In its petition to the European Parliament, the group has highlighted a number of hardship cases. In one case, a couple in their early 50s borrowed £80,000 to buy a licence in 1999. According to the petition, their home is now being threatened because they have fallen into arrears on their licence loan.

In another case, a girl inherited a taxi licence when her father died in November 1999. In June 2001, she paid probate tax based on the value of the licence when her father died (£75,000), despite the fact that the licence is now worth less than £5,000.

Ms Darling said the group was not optimistic that the Government's taxi hardship panel would significantly ease the difficulties faced by FAIR members.

Mr David Lowe, the secretary of the European Parliament's committee on petitions, said many MEPs were "deeply concerned" at the impact which deregulation appeared to have had on people and the committee was interested in discussing the issue.