EXPO REAL 2016: The UK’s planning system is the hardest to navigate in Europe in order to develop logistics, according to Prologis’ president of Europe Ben Bannatyne.
Speaking at Expo Real in Munich, Bannatyne said: “The UK is the most challenging followed by Germany for our type of product. In the UK land is extremely tight. It is an island and cannot produce any more of it.
“You are competing with other uses such as residential so it is extremely difficult to acquire and entitle land in the UK but we have a team that has been doing that for 15 years in the UK so our land bank is very strong but we continue to look for opportunities, whether it be brownfield or greenfield that we have to take through the planning process.”
The country’s housing shortage has meant that in certain areas residential use has been prioritised above logistics, meaning that serving customers and businesses in major conurbations is more difficult than other areas of Europe.
However, Bannatyne said that planners were becoming more aware of the need for logistics properties within their plans and their importance to the economy.
“Warehouse/industrial has had some perception issues in the past as it has been related to manufacturing and ‘dirty industry’ but now things are very high-tech with buildings where businesses are employing a lot of people, such as in e-commerce, so with educating the local authorities, they are seeing our uses as more compatible than they did before,” he said.
With the growth of e-commerce, the buildings that Prologis is developing is evolving as some e-tailers are taking larger warehouses and employing more people.
“The box remains the box but inside there is now more automation, mezzanine levels and lots more daylight, more parking and social areas and occupiers are investing considerable amounts of money in their facilities.”
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