The independent consultants Oxford Economics have produced a report on investment and productivity growth at UKMPG ports (available for download here).

The report brings out the scale of the private investment which has been taking place, with investment - which has averaged around £300 million over the last 5 years - up by nearly 40% on the previous 5 year period.  The report points out that this rate of investment puts UKMPG ports amongst the highest investing sectors in the UK economy.

The report also shows that UKMPG ports have a high rate of productivity using the most widely accepted measure of production efficiency.

Another recent report by Oxford Economics on the economic significance of the ports industry using data from 2011 showed that UK ports were significant employers with 120k staff directly employed and a total of 390k jobs supported (1 in 80 jobs in the economy).  The investment currently being made by UKMPG ports is generating a further 50k jobs.

These efficiency improvements are not being made at the expense of safety in ports.  Indeed the latest figures show that the port accident rate is down by a further 20% in 2012, having already reduced by 50% since 2000.

These considerable achievements are in no small part due to the stable policy and investment climate for UK ports in recent years.  UKMPG is concerned that this could be put at risk by the ill directed Port Services Regulation proposal which the EU Commission has recently put forward.