BPF Spotlight Series: Logistics Manifesto
The second of our sector-focused manifestos launched last week at UKREiiF and focused on logistics.
We chat to BPF Assistant Director Sam Bensted on the importance of the logistics sector to the UK and what’s in the manifesto. Scroll on to find out more.
What is logistics property?
Our industrial and logistics members are the organisations that build, own and manage the critical infrastructure that keeps the UK running. Their logistics facilities are vital to resilient and efficient supply chains that manufacture, process, store and distribute essential products and services to millions of households and thousands of businesses.
Why is the logistics sector important?
The logistic sector is arguably the hidden jewel in the UK’s crown and is essential to our economic growth, productivity and resilience. The sector:
- Contributes £232bn of GVA a year to the economy.
- Supports 2.7m high quality jobs in England alone, paying almost £5,000 a year above the national average.
- Amounts to 3.6bn sq.ft. of warehousing space across the UK, roughly equivalent to 56,000 football pitches!
Who was involved in writing the manifesto and what issues does it address?
Our Logistics Manifesto was developed by the BPF Industrial Committee and Logistics Property Board – the two member forums that lead our work for this sector.
A key strand to the manifesto is setting out practical ways to create a more effective planning framework for logistics.
What policy solutions does the manifesto offer?
The manifesto expands on a number of the key planning policy solutions we put forward in our response to the Government’s ‘Planning for Freight & Logistics call for evidence as well as the BPF’s overarching manifesto: ‘Building our Future’. Key recommendations include:
- Introducing strategic planning. This is the most important change an incoming Government can make to ensure the right amount of logistics is provided in the right locations. Logistics development tends to traverse local authority boundaries, and as such calls for a ‘larger than local’ approach.
- Improve the evidence base used to plan for industrial and logistics. ‘Employment land reviews’ feed into the local plan process and are the bedrock of planning for employment use. However, the evidence used is often out of date by the time the local plan is adopted. We suggest ways in which ELRs can be made more accurate.
- Accelerate grid connectivity to logistics facilities to enable green energy to be exported to the grid. Warehouses have the roof space for up to 15GW of new solar, the equivalent of around 25% of the UK’s power requirement, and we recommend ways to maximise this potential.
- Elevate the status of freight and logistics. We support wider calls for Whitehall to take a more interest in logistics. We call for a clear strategy for logistics that sets out how cross-departmental collab can be achieved and the creation of a national Freight Planning Forum to lead future planning policy development.
Read the full BPF Logistics Manifesto at our GE24 Hub.
About Sam
Sam covers planning, industrial and logistics, construction and heritage at the BPF. He began as an policy intern at the BPF in late 2017 and has been here ever since! He previously worked at Ealing Council as a Regeneration Officer post university. Away from work, he is enjoying a late blossoming to his amateur tennis career on Clapham Common.
