Logistics UK has written to the new transport secretary seeking a meeting as soon as possible to discuss reversing a steep decline in productivity within the sector.
Chief exexutive David Wells said he was keen to start working with Heidi Alexander and outline what he said was “a huge opportunity” for her to build on the gov ennrnment’s growth mission by prioritising logistics.
The business group was critical of Alexander’s predecessor Louise Haigh, who it said failed to recognise commercial transport’s role in delivering growth, or understand how logistics and UK supply chains could achieve it.
Wells said: “Firstly, I would like to congratulate Heidi Alexander on her appointment as the new Secretary of State for Transport and we, along with our member businesses, look forward to working together over the coming months to implement a strategy for using logistics as the catalyst to start driving growth throughout the economy.
“There is a huge opportunity for her and her department to address the decline in logistics productivity, drive growth and secure the sector’s place in the forthcoming industrial strategy, including the development of a genuinely integrated transport strategy that facilitates the efficient movement of freight, while meeting the needs of the travelling public.”
Wells said that without logistics the economy would grind to a halt and it contributed £185bn every year, as well as employing 8% of the UK workforce: “yet the performance of logistics in the UK is getting less efficient as a result of extensive congestion and delays across the transport network, friction at our borders and a lack of public investment in the infrastructure our members need to operate effectively,” he added.
“The World Bank Logistics Productivity Index shows that the UK has slipped from 4th in the world to 19th in the last 10 years and the Secretary of State for Transport has a huge opportunity to reverse this decline and drive Labour’s growth mission.”
