Call for government to recognise maritime sector as best hope for levelling-up
“The port sector has an essential role to play in growing economies.”
The new Chief Executive of one of the UK’s largest logistics firms has urged the government to embrace a partnership with port and maritime companies to help meet its objectives on levelling-up, net zero and economic growth.
Claudio Veritiero, who took over at Peel Ports Group in April, says that businesses in the sector are ideally placed to provide benefits and opportunities across these three national priorities, especially in the wake of Covid-19 and Brexit.
The comments are included in a 40-page report that Peel Ports has published on Monday 18th July in response to the government’s own whitepaper from earlier this year, in which the company says there is ‘enormous scope’ for synergy between what is required for levelling-up, achieving Net Zero ambitions and the work of the maritime logistics community.
Peel Ports goes on to set out practical ways in which businesses can be helped to maximise their impact, referencing the government’s own approach of six ‘capitals’: physical, financial, intangible, social, human and institutional. The report quotes research by Maritime UK showing that:
- the port sector creates an extra £2.67 to the economy for every £1 it directly produces
- this contributes to an estimated total of £29 billion to the UK economy
- maritime workers earn 36% more than the national average.
Claudio Veritiero said:
“It has long been clear to those of us in the port sector that we have an essential role to play in growing economies and there’s never been a more pivotal time for us to assert our ambitions in helping everyone in the UK to thrive. Read more from Multimodal article >
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