However, the group is clear that any local growth and transport plans created as a result of the new legislation must reflect the importance of the logistics industry, both as a vital sector in its own right but also as a key enabler of growth across the whole UK economy.
Under the plans announced in the White Paper, Mayoral Strategic Authorities will set up and coordinate a Key Route Network on behalf of local Mayors, allowing the most important local roads to be strategically managed. Mayors will hold a Power of Direction over this network to support delivery of their agreed Local Transport Plan.
Speaking after the publication of the White Paper, Jonathan Walker, Logistics UK’s Head of Planning and Infrastructure Policy urged local and national politicians to consider the needs of the industry when developing devolved strategies, to place the movement of goods at the heart of local and regional planning:
“Logistics has been proven as a key driver of growth in the economy,” he says, “as well as being critical to providing all the goods which businesses, homes, schools and hospitals need to operate. It is vital that the planned Key Route Networks, and local growth plans, consider the needs of logistics as an industry, and how the sector can support growth locally and nationally.
“Putting decision-making closer to the businesses it affects is a good thing, providing local and regional governments and administrators acknowledge and accommodate their role in the national economy and its networks.
"How local “Key Route Networks” will operate as part of the national logistics network will be critical to their success – key roads must be the priority to ensure the smooth and swift delivery of all that the economy needs, where the goods are needed.”
And as Mr Walker continues, logistics needs to be placed at the heart of any planning legislation passed, not considered as an afterthought once local developments have been agreed:
“New housing developments without a supporting infrastructure – like schools, offices and shops and the businesses that support them – will not succeed. The emphasis for any new developments must be on creating workable, joined-up plans that include the needs of the logistics businesses that will underpin new communities.
"Logistics businesses need to be in place to support communities as they establish and grow. Our members stand ready to provide advice and guidance for local governments to ensure that this will be the case.”
More information about the government’s Devolution White Paper can be found here.
