Comment

Planning for the Future – Logistics: The missing link

The Government’s planning White Paper (Planning for the Future, 6 August 2020) starts positively, with mention of jobs in the forewords of both the Prime Minister and Secretary of State. It then falls largely silent on the topic, bar a few meagre and largely unqualified references to employment land spread thinly across in the report’s 84 pages.

During the early stages of lockdown those on the coal face of the logistics industry were briefly heralded as key workers, helping to keep the country going by delivering food and supplies. This was a very clear demonstration of the importance of a fully functioning and efficient logistics sector. Yet, it appears the sector may have been forgotten just as quickly as it adapted to the challenges of COVID-19.

The planning reforms can largely be read as the route map for the development industry’s part in the Government’s mechanism for economic recovery, with a sped up and flexible planning system to encourage development and investment. It should go without saying that a key part of this is supporting those sectors we have become so reliant on during lockdown and in our ‘new normal’. Logistics is one such sector: online retail as a proportion of all retail grew to 22% in March 2020 as ‘consumers switched to online purchasing’ (ONS, Retail Sales Great Britain, March 2020), going some way towards fast forwarding previous projections for take up of online shopping.

However, logistics is given no air time within Planning for the Future, despite recent progress in positive planning for the sector in the National Planning Practice Guidance, for example. Employment land is mentioned, in the context of the current approach not quite hitting the mark: being ‘highly contested’ and not providing ‘a clear basis for the scale of development to be planned for’ and that instead business needs should be planned ‘for a minimum of 10 years’ including ‘land needed to take advantage of local opportunities for economic growth’. We agree that appropriate planning for allocation of employment land, flexible to business needs, is much needed. In the Northern Powerhouse for example, our recent report for Tritax Symmetry draws on industrial agent data to highlight that employment land is in short supply, with 1.5 years supply at the time of the report (this has since decreased to c.1 years supply [1]).

That said, while the standard method for assessing housing needs is the subject of specific consultation questions within the White Paper, there is no reference to the most appropriate approach to ensuring we have sufficient land for employment. Given the Government’s recognition of the need for economic recovery, with local authorities encouraged to develop an Economic Recovery Plan, this absence seems stark. It raises questions around the Government’s grasp of how to achieve economic recovery – though important, building more homes will not achieve this alone.

Our 2019 research for the British Property Federation identified that for every home built, 69 sq ft of warehouse space is needed. While the intention might be that housing growth will drive employment land needs (due to the relationship with labour), historically local authorities have tended to respond better when there is an onus to plan for a positive balance between the two.

Beyond this there is also the seeming removal of Duty to Cooperate. Logistics is one such sector which needs a policy ‘stick’ to ensure that its land requirements do not fall through the planning cracks, particularly when considering regional or national distribution centres. Such types of logistics space are only likely to witness an increase in light of the nation’s enhanced online shopping patterns, and if there is no mechanism to ensure that local authorities make allowance for these types of land hungry development then there is a danger that the undersupply will only be further eroded. Reading between the lines it seems that development corporations are being lined up to take a greater role in planning for employment needs which should lend itself to planning for land requirements which are larger than local and span across local authority boundaries. Areas such as the Oxford to Cambridge Arc would benefit from this type of strategic approach.

Now that the pasta and flour are back on our shelves we must not forget the fundamental role the sector plays and the huge potential it has to be a vital link in delivering economic recovery.

We encourage our clients to ensure your planning needs are represented through the White Paper consultation exercise (ending 29 October 2020). Contact Amy Gilham or Matthew Fox to discuss how we can support you in representations.

18 August 2020

[1] Savills, July 2020, The Logistics Market in the North West