Thursday 24 November 2016

"Northern ports tempt shippers away from Dover after migrant crisis"

Emailed in by Physiocrat, from the FT:

Ports outside the south-east have benefited from disruption at Dover, helping them to win a greater share of Britain’s growing container and vehicle trade. Northern ports have been selling the benefits of avoiding the congested roads of the south-east and investing in infrastructure just as some hauliers sought alternatives to Dover, hit by the migrant crisis.

The cross-channel route has been declared secure a month after the demolition of the “Jungle” refugee camp and freight traffic is growing again. But government figures for the first half of the year show a drop at Dover as traffic was displaced. Harwich and Felixstowe, the big south-east container ports, also lost traffic to London Gateway, which is expanding fast...


That's only half the story of course. The problem with Dover is not with Dover, but the fact that the traffic there arrives from Calais/France. So this is a golden opportunity for Belgian and Dutch ports as well.

3 comments:

Graeme said...

Isn't it obvious that people will look around and everyone will split the difference betweeeen rates and rent...unless the landowners want everything to be rented by charity shops. Welll, looking at 2 high streets, it seems that property owners prefer charity shops. OK does the YPP have a policy on charity shops?

Mark Wadsworth said...

G, we don't have a specific policy on charity shops.

We do have a specific policy of doing away with all business rates exemptions and discounts and replacing it with land value tax.

Physiocrat said...

Because business rates also include buildings in the valuation, is it possible that they may be attempting to collect more than 100% of land value and making some locations submarginal?