Speaking in response to Friday’s government announcement of £8 billion to repair roads, Michelle Gardner, Deputy Policy Director at business group Logistics UK said:
“Any investment to improve the state of Britain’s roads is welcomed by logistics businesses, which have been severely impacted by the decline in the state of highways in recent years. Our members currently face significant bills for repairs caused by pothole damage (on average, £575.74 for an HGV and £246.87 for a van) while the impact of taking vehicles off the roads for repair is interrupting the supply chain.
“Given the size of the roads repair backlog and that logistics businesses pay £5 billion a year in Fuel Duty and Vehicle Excise Duty, the lack of urgency to implement plans is disappointing: our sector wants to see this new funding spent more quickly, to get our roads back into a good state, and more funding allocated after that. We want to see sustainable, long-term funding for local authorities to address the pothole problem – rather than being dependent on political cycles. As well as funding transport maintenance, our members also need to see a long-term transport investment plan for logistics that resolves the capacity constraints that will result from not building HS2 beyond Birmingham.”
Logistics UK is one of the UK’s leading business groups, representing logistics businesses which are vital to keeping the UK trading, and more than seven million people directly employed in the making, selling and moving of goods. With decarbonisation, Brexit, new technology and other disruptive forces driving change in the way goods move across borders and through the supply chain, logistics has never been more important to UK plc. Logistics UK supports, shapes and stands up for safe and efficient logistics, and is the only business group which represents the whole industry, with members from the road, rail, sea and air industries, as well as the buyers of freight services such as retailers and manufacturers whose businesses depend on the efficient movement of goods.