New Warehousing Board will lead advocacy for the UK logistics sector and highlight the role warehousing plays as an essential national infrastructure
The British Property Federation (BPF) has launched a Warehousing Board (The Board) to highlight the role of warehousing as essential national infrastructure and a key driver of economic growth.
Bringing together developers, owners and occupiers to help shape Government policy
The Board has been created to lead engagement with national and regional government, focusing on the need for more support for warehouse development to enable the growth of the logistics sector.
Around 3.8 million people are employed in logistics, and the sector accounts for 14% of the economic output in England.
It often is a catalyst for job creation, improvements to road and rail infrastructure and housing delivery.
The Board will engage with local and national governments to highlight the vital role the warehousing sector has in delivering sustainable economic growth, creating essential and highly skilled job opportunities and supporting customers to reduce operational carbon emissions.
Working in collaboration with the BPF’s executive team led by Melanie Leech and the existing BPF Industrial Committee, the BPF Warehousing Board will also review how the planning system could be adapted to address the structural shortage of warehouse space and build on the 2021 report, ‘Levelling Up: The Logic of Logistics’, which examined how national planning policy and increased housing targets have restricted the development of space for the logistics sector for over a decade.
Andy Gulliford, chief operating officer at SEGRO, has been appointed as chair
It will be chaired by Andy Gulliford, chief operating officer at SEGRO, who has more than 35 years’ experience in the logistics sector across the UK and Continental Europe.
He will be joined on the Board by several senior executives from the UK and Europe’s leading owners and developers of logistics space and key decision-makers from retail and logistics companies.
The potential of logistics to boost economic growth is immense
Andy Gulliford, chair of the British Property Federation Warehousing Board (chief operating officer at SEGRO), said:
“The COVID-19 pandemic showed the critical but often unseen role logistics plays in our everyday lives and its importance to the national economy. However, the allocation of industrial land for other uses, inflexible planning policy and misperceptions around the nature of logistics employment means we are facing an acute shortage of warehouse space in many parts of the UK.
“I am delighted to be asked to Chair the BPF’s Warehousing Board and I believe that working together with the wider BPF team and businesses across the full spectrum of the supply chain, we have a tremendous opportunity to build wider understanding of the vast socio-economic benefits the logistics sector delivers, and the urgent need to plan for and develop the space it needs to reach its full potential.”
Melanie Leech, chief executive, British Property Federation, added:
“Warehousing is essential national infrastructure but our research shows that demand for space has been underestimated in planning policy for at least a decade. I look forward to working with Andy and his colleagues on the BPF Warehousing Board to continue to make the case to Government that we must plan more effectively for the delivery of warehouse space and encourage more creative thinking around how to accommodate this vital use in areas of high population growth and limited land availability.
“It is not only essential to ensuring we can all access the goods we need; it sits right at the heart of Government’s ambitions for growth across all areas of the country.”
The founding members of the BPF Warehousing Board are:
- Andy Gulliford, chief operating officer, SEGRO (Chair)
- David Sleath, chief executive, SEGRO
- Polly Troughton, managing director, St Modwen Logistics
- Michael Slattery, chief executive, Logicor
- Nick Cook, president, GLP Europe
- Paul Weston, senior vice president, regional head, Prologis UK
- Melanie Leech, chief executive, British Property Federation
- Patrick Dunne, director of group property, FM & procurement (CPO), Sainsburys
- Kevin Mofid, head of logistic and industrial research, Savills
- Colin Godfrey, chief executive, Tritax Big Box
- Andrew Dickman, director, Tritax Symmetry
- Doug Thornton, property director, Wincaton
