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Delivering green projects at UK ports is taking “inordinate” time because of under-resourced watchdogs, slow consenting processes and highly detailed regulatory requirements, the head of the second-largest ports group has said.
Claudio Veritiero, chief executive of Peel Ports Group, told the Financial Times that his sector was experiencing a “significant delay” in completing projects as it aims to cut carbon emissions and increase capacity.
In one example of “regulatory drag”, he said Peel Ports expected a new solar power project with German electric utility Eon not to be ready for four years because of grid capacity restraints and connection availability.
“You’ve got regulators that are not well resourced enough. You’ve got legislation that’s been brought in that’s measuring everything to within a gnat’s whisker of nothing,” Veritiero said in an interview.
“Whether it’s a planning application, or all of the consenting that goes with it, projects are taking an inordinate amount of time to get delivered,” he added, citing delays to the grid connection needed to fully electrify Peel Ports’ £10mn logistics hub for Vauxhall owner Stellantis.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to side with “the builders, not the blockers” as his Labour government puts higher growth and investment at the heart of its policy strategy.
In July, the government’s “growth mission board” met for the first time to set out its growth priorities, with trade and green infrastructure high on the list.
The solar project in progress by Peel Ports, which handles 70mn tonnes of cargo a year, involves installing the largest roof-mounted solar energy system in the UK at the port of Liverpool, as part of efforts to reach net zero emissions.
Among the hurdles the company is encountering are delays in processing applications and obtaining licences for new facilities. There was a need for sufficient regulatory staff that have relevant port knowledge at agencies as well as the “confidence to make decisions”, Peel Ports said.
Other port owners have singled out staffing numbers at the Marine Management Organisation, the UK regulator, saying they have been left waiting years for approvals of harbour orders, which are required for certain infrastructure developments.
The government has set out plans to invest £1.8bn in upgrading ports as part of its ambitions to boost offshore wind and accelerate the UK’s transition to clean energy.
The comments from Peel Ports come as capacity constraints in the wider shipping sector threaten to push up inflation.
The cost of moving a 40ft container between Asia and northern Europe at short notice has more than doubled since March from $3,155 to $8,113, according to the international freight payment platform Freightos, following an intensification of Houthi rebel attacks on ships travelling through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal.
Veritiero said customers had told him rates into the UK had risen sharply.
“As a result of the supply of shipping having been reduced, there is also the knock-on effect of some disruption in continental European ports and in some Southeast Asian dispatch ports,” he said, adding that schedule reliability was becoming more of a challenge.
“Inevitably it’s going to drive an element of inflation through the supply chain.”
The MMO last month said it had not received funding to employ lawyers working exclusively on harbour orders but was “reviewing our resources”.
Spencer Livermore, UK Treasury minister, told the FT last month that the government was seeking ways to break down some “very big obstacles” to investment including a reputation for political instability, laborious planning rules and lack of appetite for corporate investment.
