Paralympic gold medal winner Lizzi Jordan MBE is campaigning for tandem bicycles sold to visually impaired individuals to be VAT-exempt.
Jordan, who is blind, won Paralympic gold in the women’s tandem 1km time trial alongside her pilot Danni Khan. She has also won six world titles, four world champion medals and a bronze medal as part of Team England at the Commonwealth Games this summer.
Jordan, 28, lost her eyesight at the age 19 due to illness complications that led to her being in a coma and on life support for eight weeks. She eventually found herself at a British Cycling Talent ID day, where her para-cycling career began.
Equal access to more affordable bicycles
Jordan says she wants to use her platform to ensure every blind and visually impaired person in the UK “has equal access to something as basic as more affordable bicycles”.
“This campaign presents the government with a practical, affordable, and highly visible opportunity to improve disability inclusion in the United Kingdom,” Jordan says.
“This is a fairness issue. It is an accessibility issue. And it is an opportunity for the Government to make a meaningful change,” she adds.
British Cycling says current legislation “discriminates against visually impaired people”, failing to recognise tandems as adaptive bicycles, because they are not used exclusively by those with disabilities.
However, it adds that recognising tandems as adaptive bicycles would “improve access to exercise, travel, social inclusion and physical and mental wellbeing for visually impaired people up and down the country”.
A 2025 analysis by the Royal National Institute of Blind People found blind and partially sighted working-age adults are about half as likely to be in paid employment as non-disabled people.
Meanwhile, Sport England says disabled people are “almost twice as likely” to be physically inactive.
A “transformative” social impact
Jordan says the financial impact of recognising tandems as adaptive bicycles would be “minimal”. Figures provided by Orbit Tandems LTD, England’s largest tandem bicycle supplier, suggests the impact would be roughly £26,000 per year. Yet Jordan says “the social impact would be transformative”.
“I urge the Government to please formally recognise standard tandem bicycles purchased by visually impaired individuals as adaptive bicycles with regards to the VAT exemption," she says.
“I would welcome a meeting with you and your team to discuss this important issue, and opportunity, in more detail.”
Steve Darling, MP for Torbay, says: “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.”
The campaign has the support of several organisations, including the Bicycle Association, British Blind Sport, ParalympicsGB and Cycling UK.
