.webp)
“Logistics supplies our hospitals, schools, factories, construction sites, shops and homes with everything they need, everywhere, every day – nothing moves without it,” said Kirsteen Sullivan MP.
“In Bathgate and Linlithgow, the logistics sector is a cornerstone of our local economy, providing 3,520 jobs, which accounts for more than 12.3% of our workforce and contributes an estimated £285.5 million in Gross Value Added. This clearly demonstrates the sector’s vital importance locally.”
Logistics UK is one of the country’s largest business groups and represents the interests of logistics businesses of all sizes to support, shape and stand up for a safe, sustainable and efficient logistics sector, and ensure policy makers are aware of the industry’s significance.
A report by Oxford Economics in 2023 found that, with the right policies to boost logistics efficiency, the sector could unlock £8 billion per year in additional productivity-led growth.
Logistics UK has also worked with leading transport economists MDS Transmodal, to map the UK’s key logistics corridors – the key routes for the movement of goods across the UK – to help inform the government’s forthcoming Infrastructure Strategy.
Kirsteen Sullivan MP said: “It was great to meet with Logistics UK to discuss the importance of the government’s forthcoming Industrial Strategy recognising that logistics plays a central role in the economy, one on which everything else depends for efficient operation. This would create new opportunities to drive local growth, and boost other sectors like advanced manufacturing and the UK’s clean energy sector.”
She also heard how the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index has seen the UK fall from 4th to 19th over the past decade, due largely to congestion and delays on our roads, friction at our borders, and a long-term lack of investment in our transport infrastructure.
The logistics sector currently contributes £185 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK’s economy annually and employs 8% of the UK workforce, according to the 2024 Logistics Report, published by Logistics UK.