Reflecting on the outcomes from the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Budget Statement released on 26th November 2025, Mersey Maritime’s Head of Policy & Innovation, Simon Eardley, writes:
Budget 2025 reflections
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has finally delivered her Autumn Budget. It was perhaps one of the most widely trailed in living memory in the weeks leading up to its presentation to the House of Commons. In an extraordinary move (or mistake!), the Office for Budget Responsibility released their report on its findings around the budget just less than an hour before the Chancellor had risen to address MPs – not ideal! The statement was pitched as focusing on the ‘fair and necessary choices to deliver on the government’s promise of change’. As seemed inevitable, there were significant tax increases but also boosts to spending in some areas. As with every budget process, there will be winners and losers, but undoubtedly higher taxes will be a feature for many. The analysis will continue in the days and weeks ahead.
From a Department for Transport and maritime perspective, the key announcements were largely focused on other modes such as road and rail, with headlines including extending the temporary 5p fuel duty cut for a further five months, with the cut being reversed in three stages from September 2026; a new mileage-based tax for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars to be introduced from 2028, and regulated rail fares for journeys in England frozen next year for the first time since 1996. These changes will have some impact on individuals within our sector to a greater or lesser degree depending on their individual contexts. The same will be true for specific announcements relating to NI and income tax thresholds, pensions and savings policies.
The Chancellor was strident in her ambition around attracting both internal and external investment into British infrastructure and business opportunities. In the context of ‘building roads, building homes, getting spades in the ground and cranes in the sky’, she commented, ‘If you build here, Britain will back you.’ That level of positivity could – and should – be applied to our ship building and defence sectors. We’d welcome such an approach from the government in that way going forward.
From initial understandings, it seems that there were no significant new positions adopted within the budget report on the maritime industry specifically. Key announcements were made at London International Shipping Week in respect of the future of UK SHORE and support from HM Government for industry efforts and initiatives to deliver a cleaner and greener sector. There was no impact from the Budget Statement on the promised £448 million to this key programme which aims to accelerate the transition to zero emission maritime transport. We eagerly await news as to how this resource will be deployed from 2026 and stand ready to support Mersey Maritime members and the wider ecosystem as they seek to take advantage of investment in innovation and technologies to progress the pathway for the domestic maritime sector to reach its greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals by 2025. It is a case of ‘watch this space’!
National Policy Statement for Ports
Of more interest from a policy perspective recently was the publication of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee report on a revised National Policy Statement for Ports (Ports NPS). This formal planning document outlines the Government’s policy for the ports sector in England (and for reserved trust ports in Wales), particularly when it comes to the development of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. The purpose of the Ports NPS is to reduce delays in the planning system for major projects, by providing comprehensive guidance on the main issues that the decision-maker (whichever Secretary of State it is) will need to consider when determining applications for Development Consent Orders (DCO). A DCO is a legal mechanism in the UK that grants permission for national significant projects and streamlines the planning process for large-scale developments.
The report, published in mid-November 2025, explicitly acknowledges the vital role ports play in the UK economy, facilitating over 95% of the nations’ imports volume. This includes critical imports such as food and energy. The significance is clear – in 2024 alone, UK ports facilitated over £957 billion in trade and supported more than three quarters of a million jobs across the wider economy. This importance is well understood here in the Liverpool City Region amongst our own vibrant and diverse maritime ecosystem. Helpfully, the ports sector has been referred to as a ‘foundational industry’ within the Government’s recent Industrial Strategy, signalling that it would receive ‘immediate’ support to strengthen its resilience.
Stand-out features of the report recommendations include:
- A presumption in favour of development. The revised Ports NPS maintains a market-led approach and streamlines planning for port expansion, vital for trade and offshore energy projects.
- Critical national priority status. Ports are essential for energy security and delivering economic growth. However, the anomaly of them not enjoying the ‘critical national priority’ status given to energy projects is recommended for change.
- Decarbonisation and modal shift. The Ports NPS embeds emissions reduction goals, but more clarity is needed on integrating ports with rail and coastal shipping to cut reliance on road freight. A helpful emphasis on stronger support for shore power and grid upgrades, key ‘blockers’ to decarbonisation efforts, is recommended.
- A robust call to broaden the scope of future demand forecasts. It is predicted that there will be an 8% rise in freight by 2050, but this excludes non-freight activities such as offshore energy and cruise. Inclusion of these sectors would aid future-proof planning.
- Streamlining regulation. There are calls for clearer guidance on deemed marine licences and less onerous dredging provisions to reduce duplication and delays.
The report’s recommendations around the critical role of ports as enablers of trade, energy and economic growth are vital and very welcome. All of us involved in the maritime industry know this to be the case; embedding it further into the mindset of government will play a helpful role in the future as the sector continues to respond to the dual challenges of decarbonisation and delivering robust economic growth for wider benefit.
How we see this degree of positive ambition and language around ports translated into local and national policy further, will be a key test when the Ports NPS is finally published:
“Ports are indispensable to the UK’s supply chain both for import and export of goods, and for development of energy infrastructure. Without their efficient operation, resilience and continued development, energy security and economic growth cannot be realised.” (Report conclusion, paragraph 38)
We await with interest future developments around this key area of work and will endeavour to keep Mersey Maritime members and our wider network informed.
You can read the full report here: National Policy Statement for Ports
If you would like to suggest a topic or theme for a ‘policy blog’ in the future, please contact Simon Eardley in the Mersey Maritime team: simon.eardley@merseymaritime.co.uk
