UKWA hosts Policy Lunch with Mike Reader MP at Labour Party Conference

The UKWA took the opportunity to raise members’ concerns around the potential impact of government property reforms at the Labour Party Conference.

At a special lunchtime meeting of the UKWA’s Property & Planning Advisory Board, attended by Mike Reader MP and Chaired by Ian Henderson, Vice Chairman of UKWA’s management board and Group Head of Property for Associated British Ports (ABP), senior figures from UKWA joined major logistics companies, property developers and port operators to discuss the proposed ban on Upward Only Rent Review clauses in the English Devolution Bill, the fraught issue of Business Rates and the Government’s progress on Planning Reform.

Commenting on the event, which appropriately took place in an historic warehouse overlooking Albert Dock, UKWA Director of Policy & Public Affairs Edwin Morgan said:

“Several UKWA members expressed their concern about the ban on Upward Only Rent Review clauses in the English Devolution Bill, which is currently going through Parliament. While the Government seems to have intended it to protect high street shops, it was important to highlight the possible unintended consequences for industrial and logistics properties, potentially damaging the availability of funding for these projects.

“We also covered the expected rise in Business Rates, which is going to be particularly punishing for logistics. Warehousing obviously requires large sites to operate cost-effectively, but the sector is characterised by thin margins. Coming on top of the twin rises in National Insurance and Minimum Wage announced earlier in the year, increased Business Rates will add to mounting costs, which is a major worry for the sector.

“On the other hand, there was support for the Government’s efforts to reform the planning system. UKWA members wanted the Government to keep pushing ahead with reforms, and remember that logistics and infrastructure development is needed alongside new housing.

“It was great to have the ear of Mike Reader, who is a known champion for the logistics sector, and to have the opportunity as the voice of warehousing to air the views of members in the most relevant of environments”

Mike Reader is Chair of both the Infrastructure, and the Built Environment All Party Parliamentary Groups, as well as the MP for Northampton South at the heart of the UK’s ‘Golden Triangle’. His constituency includes the Brackmills Industrial Estate, a key 730-acre logistics hub and home to over 180 businesses with 11,500 employees.