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Working for our members – by Natalie Chapman, Head of Public Affairs
The first half of 2025 has flown by, and we have been busy continuing to spread the message that logistics underpins the economy and is fundamental to growth. A huge focus of ours this year is around the forthcoming Industrial, Trade and Infrastructure Strategies, making sure logistics is recognised within these as foundational to driving growth across the whole economy.
As a team, we have been doing lots of activity to get this message heard across Whitehall and ensure increase understanding amongst key stakeholders. With the government identifying eight growth driving sectors, we have been making it clear that these sectors can’t drive growth on their own – they need logistics.
Getting this message recognised means ensuring we have the right infrastructure in place, the right skills to deliver, the right trade policies, including with border frictions removed, and right support to enable a fair transition to a green economy. It is our job to ensure that senior policy makers understand these messages and how critical logistics is to the government’s growth mission.
To help us share this message and provide evidence to support our positions, we work closely with policy experts across the wider Policy team to help shape our asks. It is then our job to take these positions and ensure our messaging around why logistics is important, is understood by key decision makers and political audiences.
What this looks like in practice can vary, but typically includes writing to Ministers, attending events and organising visits. A key focus of our work is always about growing engagement with both senior politicians in government and opposition parties and also building our group of supportive backbench MPs.
Recently, we shared our Logistics Employment by GB Parliamentary Constituency map which highlights how many logistics workers there are by constituency, which has received great feedback from MPs. We know how focused MPs are on their constituents and so working with MPs who have high percentages of logistics workers and those who have a real interest in logistics has been great. For example, we have been doing a lot of work with Rachel Taylor MP, Amanda Hack MP, Phil Brickell MP, Mike Reader MP.
To give an idea of some of the activity we have been doing so far this year, we have participated in a DfT-hosted Mike Kane Ministerial roundtable on air cargo, met with DfT officials to discuss the Integrated National Transport Strategy, attended Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ infrastructure speech and joined the reception of the UK Trade and Business Commission in Parliament.
Other ways we have been engaging with MPs and political stakeholders recently include hosting an Industrial Strategy roundtable, hosting a Parliamentary drop-in, attending the DfT Ministers’ reception at National Railway Museum, participating in Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood MP’s roundtable on van decarbonisation and most recently held our inaugural Annual Conference with Lilian Greenwood MP, Shadow Transport Secretary Gareth Bacon MP, and Industry Minister Sarah Jones MP speaking.
Hosting our inaugural Annual Conference was a significant moment for Logistics UK and it was really encouraging to hear Lilian Greenwood MP describe logistics as an “unstoppable force for economic growth” and Sarah Jones MP describe logistics as “a powerhouse,” saying that logistics “needs to be the thread that runs through all government strategies.”
In terms of building government relationships, the DfT remains hugely important and we have a good relationship with Lilian Greenwood MP. Given how logistics touches all parts of the economy, engaging with the Department for Business and Trade has also been really important to us. Along with building relationships with the new government, we are also building relationships with Shadows. It is a great opportunity to influence other parties whilst they are in listening mode and receptive to hearing ideas ahead of the next general election.
One of the biggest changes for us is the nature of the party system. Historically, we have generally had a two party system and yet now there is increasingly a need to engage more widely. Looking ahead to Party conferences season, Logistics UK will have activity, panel sessions and receptions at Labour and Conservative events, and will attend Liberal Democrat’s Business Day and Scottish National Party’s Business Day.
Going into next year, with elections in Wales and Scotland, we continue to also do a lot of work in our devolved nations. This week we hosted our first Scottish Parliament reception and we continue to do lots of work through Food 7 Cymru in Wales, which is a really great way of telling the logistics story to those less familiar with how the sector works. In Northern Ireland, working closely with our Policy colleagues we have been pushing the messaging about trading relationships and the Windsor Framework in particular, something we continue to work on.
Published On: 12/06/2025 16:26:54
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