Paralympic champion Lizzi Jordan calls on Chancellor to scrap VAT on tandems
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Paralympic champion Lizzi Jordan calls on Chancellor to scrap VAT on tandems for visually impaired riders
Jordan says it would cost the Treasury around £26,000 a year to recognise tandems as adaptive bicycles and end what she calls an avoidable inequality.
Paralympic champion Lizzi Jordan MBE has written to the Chancellor ahead of the Autumn Budget. She is asking for standard tandem bicycles bought by certified visually impaired people to be made exempt from VAT.
Adaptive bikes such as trikes and hand bikes are already exempt. Tandems are not, because they aren’t used only by disabled people. Jordan argues that for many visually impaired people, a tandem is not a leisure luxury but an essential adaptation. With a sighted pilot, it lets them ride safely, as around half of Britain’s adults do each year.
This is a fairness issue. It is an accessibility issue. And it is an opportunity for the Government to make a meaningful change,” Jordan wrote in her open letter.
A financial barrier
Tandems cost much more than standard bicycles, and Jordan says the current rules put an unnecessary financial barrier in front of people who are already at a disadvantage.
A 2025 analysis by the Royal National Institute of Blind People found that blind and partially sighted working-age adults are about half as likely to be in paid work as non-disabled people, at 40% compared with 80%. Office for National Statistics data shows that disabled workers across the UK earn about 12.7% less per hour than non-disabled workers. Sport England reports that disabled people are “almost twice as likely” to be physically inactive.
Jordan puts the cost to the Treasury at around £26,000 a year. “The financial impact of this recognition would be minimal, but the social impact would be transformative,” she wrote.
From life support to Paralympic gold
The campaign comes from Jordan’s own experience. Nine years ago, aged 19, she lost her sight suddenly after complications from an illness left her in a coma on life support for eight weeks. She had been fully sighted, independent and active. She woke up completely blind.
After the NHS saved her life, she learned to walk again and later went to a British Cycling Talent ID day, where her para-cycling career began. She has since won Paralympic gold in the women’s tandem 1km time trial with pilot Danni Khan, along with six world titles and four more World Championship medals. This summer she added a bronze with Team England at her first Commonwealth Games.
“While I have chosen to pursue elite sport, cycling offers so many benefits and this ask is simply about equality in everyday life,” she said. “I feel it is my moral duty to use my platform now to ensure that every blind or visually impaired person in this country has equal access to something as basic as more affordable bicycles.”
Lizzi Jordan | Tax Free Tandems
Tax-free Tandems: Paralympic champion Lizzi Jordan calls on government to make tandems tax-free and enable more access to bikes for the visually impaired.
Jordan developed the campaign through the Lloyds Pedal with Purpose programme. It is one of several initiatives British Cycling and Lloyds run together to remove barriers to cycling.
Cross-sector backing
The campaign has support in Westminster. Steve Darling, MP for Torbay, said: “The current rules, meaning that tandem bikes are not recognised as adaptive cycles, make little sense. We need to encourage people with disabilities to stay active rather than making specialist equipment more expensive. I hope that the Chancellor sees this error and reverses it at the budget.”
It is also officially backed by the Bicycle Association, British Blind Sport, ParalympicsGB, the British Olympic Association, Cycling UK, Living Streets, the Bikeability Trust, the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, and Get Yourself Active (Disability Rights UK).
In her letter, Jordan describes the change as “a practical, affordable, and highly visible opportunity to improve disability inclusion in the United Kingdom”. She has asked to meet the Chancellor and their team to discuss it.
Lizzi’s campaign is officially backed by:
- The Bicycle Association
- British Blind Sport
- ParalympicsGB
- Living Streets
- Cycling UK
- Bikeability Trust
- Walk Wheel Cycle Trust
- Get Yourself Active (Disability Rights UK)
- The British Olympic Association
