THE UK’s global competitiveness has dropped significantly and investment in the UK’s transport and logistics infrastructure is urgently required to boost its attractiveness to international investors, according to The 2019 Logistics Report, launched by FTA in association with Santander Corporate and Commercial Banking, which polled the opinions of more than 500 freight and logistics businesses operating in the UK and internationally, to provide industry insight into the latest political and economic developments.
Elizabeth de Jong, director of UK policy at FTA commented: ‘With Brexit set to change the face of our trading environment in the UK, quality of infrastructure is a key priority for any business looking to invest, but this has been weakening for several years due to underinvestment in the roads network, rocketing fuel prices, limited accessibility to all forms of transport, and an overall lack of innovative transport solutions.’
According to the 2018 Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum, the UK is now the eighth most competitive nation, a drop of two places since 2017. The UK ranks 29th for road connectivity and 26th for road quality worldwide. And a report by Ernst & Young confirmed that the UK’s transport and logistics infrastructure has become less attractive to investors, yielding an attractiveness score of 62% in 2018, a long way below its previous high of 80%.
