What does a Labour government mean for the logistics sector?
The Labour manifesto gives us an indication of the new government’s plans for the logistics sector, promising to:
- remove “planning barriers” to new data centres;
- develop a ten-year infrastructure strategy;
- align infrastructure strategy with industrial strategy and regional development priorities, including improving rail connectivity across the north of England;
- create a new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority to set strategic infrastructure priorities; and
- update national planning policy to make it easier to build digital infrastructure and gigafactories.
Even before the UK went to the polls, Labour MP Peter Kyle (and now Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology) advised that his party would “supercharge” the UK tech sector. Whilst in Rachel Reeves’ first speech as Chancellor she confirmed that the Deputy Prime Minister has already decided to recover two planning appeals for datacentres in Buckinghamshire and in Hertfordshire.
An encouraging start but only time will tell.
we will also reform the planning system to deliver the infrastructure that our country needs
