POLITICS
Capitalising on the region’s growing logistics sector
In August, the Government launched a consultation on its Planning for the Future white paper, which proposes major changes to the UK’s planning system in response to the economic trends that have been accelerated during the pandemic. While many of these trends may be national, there is a distinct East Midlands flavour to how they are playing out. To help shape the Chamber’s response to Westminster, it held a roundtable session for business leaders to offer their views on the future of how we live, work and move, as Dan Robinson reports.
times, about 4.2 million passengers would pass through its terminals to fly to more than 90 destinations each year, but as the pandemic rips through the aviation sector, it looks set for a huge drop in 2020 – with July’s 79,235 passengers down 86.1% on 2019. Daytime flights to sunnier spots are just one
F
half of the airport’s business, though, and the overnight cargo operation – which typically handles 370,000 tonnes a year, second only to Heathrow – has prospered during lockdown, with year-on-year volumes up by 21.2% and 18.5% for July and August respectively. “The airport plays a vital role for this region
and the country in terms of moving goods,” says Ioan Reed-Aspley, head of external communications at the airport. Some of the growth has obvious drivers, not
least the “turbo-charged” shift to online shopping – with Office for National Statistics figures suggesting its 19% year-on-year proportion of all retail reported pre-lockdown in February had risen to almost 33% in April. But Ioan also highlights how it has benefited
from the industry’s collapse of long-haul flights to locations like North America. As companies have been unable to deliver goods in the belly hold of passenger aircraft, they have instead turned to end-to-end freight services like DHL and UPS, which have their UK hubs at Castle Donington.
The airport’s overnight cargo operation is thriving
or many people in the region, East Midlands Airport represents a family holiday in the Balearics, a couple’s city trip to Rome or a friends’ ski break in the Swiss Alps. In normal
Directly to the north of the airport is the
SEGRO East Midlands Gateway site, a 700-acre logistics park that is already home to flagship sites for Amazon, Very, Nestle, Kuehne+Nagel, Games Workshop, ShopDirect and XPO Logistics – with DHL granted planning permission for another major hub in August. The site is expected to employ up to 8,000
people eventually, in addition to the 9,500 jobs associated with the airport across its passenger, logistics and surrounding hospitality elements. Ioan adds: “There’s a cluster of logistics
operators that have emerged around the airport, many of which are recruiting, so this corner of North-West Leicestershire is probably the fastest-growing area in the East Midlands.”
‘The challenge for the region is to connect its towns and cities with these new employment hubs’
Alex Reynolds, development director at Tritax Symmetry – which has two major logistics schemes in the East Midlands, including the proposed Hinckley National Rail Freight Interchange cargo terminal – says logistics has shown great resilience during the pandemic and many e-commerce firms have boomed. He points to national research from Savills,
which reported record levels in the first half of 2020 for take-up of industrial and logistics space, as well as a British Property Foundation 2020 study saying the median salary in logistics is £31,600, compared to £24,900 across all sectors. “Going forward, the East Midlands has a real opportunity to capitalise on that growth but we need the right well-located sites to be available,” adds Alex, who also highlights a Network Rail study claiming each freight train removes 76 HGVs when promoting the industry’s green credentials. “Geographically, we have a strong motorway
connectivity with the logistics golden triangle, as well as being the epicentre for rail freight, which allows inland multi-modal opportunities to flourish. We also have a skilled labour force and wages in logistics are higher than the national average.”
46 business network November 2020
THE JOB BENEFITS are fairly clear, but many agree the challenge for the region is to connect its towns and cities with these new employment hubs. Warehouses have been responsible for the
biggest recovery in passenger levels for bus operator trentbarton, which dropped to a tenth of pre-Covid numbers in April. The company has recorded patronage exceeding 100% on two services to logistics sites near the airport. Perhaps the first hurdle will be convincing
passengers it’s safe to use public transport again, with Galliford Try's East Midlands business development manager Neus Garriock admitting she’s afraid “we could wipe out all those sustainability benefits we’ve been trying to achieve if we don’t pay attention to safely bringing people back on to trains, buses and trams”.
Alongside the fear factor, people may no
longer wish to travel so far to work. Go Travel Solutions managing director Robin
Pointon highlights examples like Saltaire, a model village built in Bradford to accommodate workers at the Victorian era Salts Mill. “If we can get residents and businesses nearer
together, that would be ideal,” he says. “Places like Saltaire, near my roots, made a lot of sense and it was actually sustainability before we branded it sustainability. For that to happen, it’s about policies and individuals accepting their role in change.” Jon Parker, managing director of the Integrated
Transport Planning consultancy, adds another spanner in the works of sustainable transport as he observes how local politicians have struggled to implement cycling and walking infrastructure due to concerns over upsetting car users. He adds: “At some point, we need to face this head-on and ask the community what it wants from infrastructure in a world in which we have limited space.”
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