Britain's industrial strategies and ports

David Styan

Chapter 11 in A Modern Guide to Industrial Economics, 2026, pp 189-212 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Ports and maritime industries play a key role in national economies, acting as central nodes in global trade, logistics, and industrial growth. Industrial policies towards these sectors continue to influence their competitiveness and capacity for development. This chapter analyses the evolution of UK governments’ industrial policies towards the country's major ports and maritime industries. It highlights the manner in which these have been constrained by three factors: firstly, the complex, diverse historic nature of port ownership and management in the UK; secondly, the privatisation of key ports in the 1980s; and finally, successive governments’ reluctance to finance maritime infrastructure. Port privatisation resulted in Emirati (Dubai Ports World) and Hong Kong-based (Hutchison) global ports groups playing key roles in Britain's maritime sector. The chapter concludes by discussing how the recent government strategy towards ports has focussed on the promotion of privately owned “Freeports”.

Keywords: Freeports; Infrastructure; Maritime industrial policy; Privatisation; Public policies; UK ports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035365609
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