Sheffield city council has suspended Uber’s licence in what the company has insisted is an “administrative error”.

The ride-hailing company can still operate in the city until 18 December and, if it appeals against the council’s decision, can operate after that date until the appeal is heard. Uber has said it will appeal so it can “continue to serve people in Sheffield”.

The dispute surrounds the company’s failure to change the name on the licence from that of the former UK boss Jo Bertram, who left Uber in October. Bertram announced her departure after Transport for London (TfL) stripped Uber of its licence to operate in the UK capital in September.

Sheffield city council has said the law does not allow for a licence to be transferred to a different name. However, Uber argues that it has not had any difficulty doing so with other local authorities.

A Sheffield city council spokesperson said: “Uber’s licence was suspended last Friday (29 November) after the current licence holder failed to respond to requests, made by our licensing team, about the management of Uber.” Uber applied for a new licence, with a different named individual, on 18 October, which the council said it was processing.

A spokesperson for Uber said the company had informed Sheffield city council on 5 October that they would need to change the name on the licence as the named individual would soon be leaving the company.

“The council told us they couldn’t change the name on the licence, as most other councils have done, and that we would instead have to apply for a new one,” they said in a statement.

“While we are in regular contact with the council, we did not receive the correspondence the council refers to as they sent the letters to an incorrect address. We hope this administrative error can be quickly resolved so we can continue serving tens of thousands of riders and drivers in Sheffield.”

Lee Parkinson of the GMB union said the move by the local authority was “yet another blow for Uber and more proof their exploitative business model does not pay”.

“When will Uber admit it has to change its ways and put the safety of its drivers and the public before profits?” he said.

Mick Rix, the union’s national officer for the hackney and private-hire taxi trade, said he suspected that other considerations had played a part in the local authority’s decision to suspend the licence, and called on Sheffield council to be “more transparent” about what they were.



“Local authorities do not make decisions like this lightly because companies like Uber, which is valued at £70bn, will just throw money at the problem and take everybody to court,” he said. “There’s pressure on local services, so politicians have to decide between keeping a library open or fighting a court case.”

He added: “How can such a wealthy, global, mini-cab operator such as Uber be so stupid as to overlook a key demand of its licensing requirements?”

Sheffield council’s decision is the latest blow in a bad year for Uber in the UK. In October, the Central London employment tribunal ruled that Uber drivers were not self-employed, and were entitled to basic workers’ rights including holiday pay, a guaranteed minimum wage and an entitlement to breaks. The ruling came a month after TfL decided not to renew the company’s licence to operate in London.