The 2025 Spring Statement delivered meaningful capital and skills funding, but industry leaders are still waiting for clarity on electrification, fiscal reform, and regulatory consistency.
Investment in Infrastructure and Skills Draws Cautious Optimism
The UK government’s £625 million workforce and infrastructure package—announced in the 2025 Spring Statement—landed well with much of the logistics sector. The commitments reflect a growing recognition that labour shortages, ageing roads, and digital underinvestment are limiting growth.
Alongside a reaffirmed £13 billion capital uplift, £4.8 billion will go to the Strategic Road Network in 2025–26, with £2.9 billion ringfenced for road renewals and maintenance. A parallel £625 million skills package aims to deliver 60,000 additional workers by 2030, with a mix of bootcamps, apprenticeships, and new Technical Excellence Colleges. Employers will also benefit from £80 million to support bespoke in-house training.
The forthcoming 10-year Infrastructure Strategy, due in June, is expected to put more definition around these ambitions. Freight corridors, digitally connected warehousing, and clean transport zones are all on the table—offering the logistics sector a longer runway to plan against.
Electrification Stalled by Policy Contradictions
While investment in infrastructure and labour is welcome, several industry voices have flagged policy inconsistencies that threaten to slow progress on fleet decarbonisation and logistics automation.
Chief among them is the removal of the electric van VED exemption and the ongoing classification of 4.25-tonne electric vans as HGVs. “These vehicles are performing the same tasks as their 3.5-tonne diesel counterparts,” said Fleet Operations’ David Bushnell. “The extra weight is in the battery, not the payload.”
Calls are growing for VAT parity on public charging, reform of the Expensive Car Supplement, and a more coherent fiscal framework to encourage electric vehicle adoption—not just at point-of-sale, but across the second-hand market where fleet turnover and scale play out.
Local authorities, too, are signalling strain. Ann Carruthers, president of ADEPT, welcomed the national infrastructure focus but warned that underfunded local services—waste, roads, and green space—continue to bear the brunt of logistics growth without proportional support.
Infrastructure Needs More Than Headlines
This Spring Statement sends the right signals in terms of capital and intent. But the logistics sector’s response makes clear that a headline investment figure is no substitute for regulatory clarity and operational foresight.
With the Spending Review and Infrastructure Strategy still to come, the opportunity remains to address long-standing gaps: aligning taxation with vehicle evolution, funding place-based services that underpin delivery networks, and creating space for small firms to engage meaningfully in automation and decarbonisation initiatives.
In practical terms, operators will be watching for whether the June announcements provide the predictability and policy alignment needed to shift from incremental improvements to long-term transformation. For now, it’s a foundation—but not yet a framework.
