IN Brief:
- CILT says the new planning framework should bring freight requirements into infrastructure decisions earlier.
- Grid availability could become a material factor in locating electric HGV depots, charging hubs, battery storage, and associated substations.
- The Institute cautions that planning permission alone cannot provide electricity capacity or remove local delivery constraints.
CILT(UK) says the practical value of England’s new freight planning framework will depend on whether logistics sites, transport connections, and electricity capacity begin to be considered as parts of the same infrastructure decision.
The revised National Planning Policy Framework has already introduced Policy E3, establishing a dedicated national decision-making policy for freight and logistics. CILT’s response focuses more narrowly on what those changes could mean when operators try to electrify depots and other freight infrastructure.
Electrifying a commercial-vehicle fleet can require considerably more than installing charging equipment. Larger sites may need transformers, substations, battery energy storage, reinforced network connections, and sufficient local grid capacity to support simultaneous charging without constraining the rest of the operation.
Daniel Parker-Klein, Director of Public Policy, Communications and Insight at CILT(UK), said: “The real test will be how these policies are applied. Decarbonising freight isn’t something planning, transport or energy policy can solve independently. Operators need the right sites, connections to the transport network and, increasingly, access to substantial amounts of electricity. Those things have to be planned together.”
That shifts electricity availability further upstream in the site-selection process. A depot beside a motorway or major distribution market can be operationally attractive but difficult or expensive to electrify if sufficient grid capacity is unavailable.
The opposite problem is equally unhelpful. A location with stronger electricity infrastructure may still be unsuitable for freight if road connections, land configuration, planning constraints, or proximity to customers force unnecessary mileage into the transport operation.
Policy E2 recognises that the availability of electricity-network infrastructure providing an adequate grid connection can contribute to the importance of a location when authorities are considering unmet development need. CILT believes that creates scope for a more integrated approach to future freight sites.
Sue Terpilowski OBE FCILT, Chair of CILT(UK)’s Public Policy Committee, said: “For years we’ve effectively asked whether we can get enough electricity to the site the planning system wants us to use. We may increasingly be able to ask where the freight demand, transport connections and available power coincide. That’s a much more realistic way to plan the next generation of freight infrastructure.”
The principle extends beyond vehicle depots. Electric HGV charging hubs, battery storage, substations, intermodal facilities, and ports can all create substantial new electrical loads, while shore power is increasing the connection requirements associated with maritime infrastructure.
CILT has also highlighted driver facilities and secure lorry parking. Their inclusion matters because decarbonisation infrastructure cannot compensate for a freight network that still lacks suitable places for drivers to rest and vehicles to park safely.
The revised framework does not remove the normal constraints surrounding freight development. Projects still have to address highways, noise, neighbouring uses, landscape, ecology, flood risk, and other planning requirements, while electricity infrastructure itself can require substantial additional work before a connection becomes available.
Terpilowski said: “Planning permission isn’t a grid connection and the new Framework won’t remove every obstacle to freight decarbonisation. But it does change the starting point of the conversation.”
That distinction is likely to determine whether Policy E3 produces a material operating change. The test will be whether planning authorities and developers begin identifying locations where freight demand, transport access, suitable land, and sufficient power overlap before operators commit to sites that subsequently prove difficult to electrify.
