North Northamptonshire Council licensed 188 hackney carriages on 1 April 2026. Department for Transport table TAXI0113, updated on 13 August 2026, records 147 of them as wheelchair-accessible and 41 as other taxis.
On 31 March 2022 the same survey was still answered separately by Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering and Wellingborough. Those returns list 114, 37, 51 and 35 hackney carriages. The four figures add to 237, so the April 2026 total is 49 vehicles lower, a fall of 20.7 per cent. The 2022 returns include 171 wheelchair-accessible hackneys.
The council's returns for the unitary authority show 230 hackney carriages on 1 April 2023, of which 161 were wheelchair-accessible, and 218 on 1 April 2024, of which 162 were wheelchair-accessible.
Private hire vehicles
The same four district returns list 415 private hire vehicles on 31 March 2022: 89 in Corby, 72 in East Northamptonshire, 93 in Kettering and 161 in Wellingborough. Eleven of those 415 were wheelchair-accessible.
The unitary council licensed 606 private hire vehicles on 1 April 2023, 600 on 1 April 2024 and 584 on 1 April 2026. Seventeen of the 2026 vehicles were wheelchair-accessible. From the 2022 district total to April 2026, private hire licences rose by 169, or 40.7 per cent. On the council's own returns since 2023, the number has fallen.
Private hire operator licences add to 93 across the four 2022 returns, then 107 in 2023, 100 in 2024 and 121 in 2026.
Driver licences
On 1 April 2026 the council recorded 1,029 driver licences: 260 taxi-only, 711 private-hire-only and 58 dual taxi and private hire licences. No driver was recorded as holding both a taxi licence and a private hire licence.
The four district returns for 31 March 2022 list 351 taxi-only licences, 564 private-hire-only licences, 156 dual licences and 20 drivers holding both a taxi licence and a private hire licence. Those district totals of driver licences add to 1,091. A person licensed by more than one of the former districts would appear more than once.
The unitary returns give 1,014 driver licences on 1 April 2023 and 1,083 on 1 April 2024. The split was 318 taxi-only, 348 private-hire-only, 182 dual and 166 holding both in 2023, and 234 taxi-only, 601 private-hire-only, 147 dual and 101 holding both in 2024.
How the survey is counted
The figures are licences issued by each licensing authority. A vehicle licensed by one council may be working in another area. The table notes that North Northamptonshire was formed on 1 April 2021, and that the survey for the year ending March 2022 was answered by the districts which made up the new authority. From the 2023 release, the snapshot date is 1 April. The table has no 2025 row for this council.
The review already requested
North Northamptonshire Council's notice of 6 October 2025 records that the Executive and Full Council approved a council-wide hackney carriage and private hire policy in June 2025 and asked for a further review after it came into force. That review is to cover requirements for wheelchair-accessible vehicles, the exceptional age policy, and transitional and grandfather rights, and it is to go to public consultation. The policy and the single hackney carriage zone took effect on 3 November 2025, once the Department for Transport had confirmed the new byelaws.