Historic day for UK and London gateway development

The Department for Transport (DfT) has issued a 'Harbour Empowerment Order' to London Gateway, which enables official and statutory powers to the new port.

Construction work will begin later this year on the 1,850 acre site, just 25 miles from central London, near Stanford-le-Hope, South Essex.

More than £1.5 bn ($3bn) is being privately invested by London Gateway's owners, DP World, the fourth largest global marine terminal company, over the next 10 - 15 years.

The project is currently the largest capital investment initiative in the UK and will become the largest employment creation project in the country.

Mohammed Sharaf C.E.O for DP World said: "We are very pleased with the UK Government's approval of the Harbour Empowerment Order. This represents a significant milestone for the project and will allow us to progress with the development".

London Gateway Chief Executive Simon Moore said: "This is an historic day for the shipping industry and the economy as a whole. We will be the UK's first major port for more than 25 years.

"London Gateway will be a port-centric logistics platform of a size and scale unique in the UK. Our customers will be able to cut costs from their supply chains, increase efficiency and reduce their environmental footprints".

London Gateway will become a national hub port for the UK and will accommodate the world's largest container ships.

The port will be the most fully automated and efficient in the country, adding an additional 3.5million TEU (twenty foot equivalent container units) to the nation's port capacity.

This will help meet recognised demand for extra capacity in the UK.

In addition to a major deep sea facility, London Gateway port will combine with Europe's largest logistics park, offering 9.5 million square feet for distribution, manufacturing and high-tech sectors.

The logistics park will offer individual units in excess of 1 million square feet.

By integrating the port and the logistics park, London Gateway will offer global brands the opportunity to move away from conventional distribution methods and benefit from more efficient and environmentally friendly ways of distributing goods.

On London Gateway's concept, Simon Moore comments: "In many ways, we are going back to our roots as a trading nation. We will get the biggest ships in the world as close as we can to the UK's largest consumer market in combination with significant warehousing capacity. This is precisely how the port of London used to work and was the foundation stone on which the city prospered. This port-centric opportunity at London Gateway will take 2,000 trucks per day off our national road network".

Announcing the award, Jim Fitzpatrick, Shipping Minister at the Department for Transport, said: "I am delighted that today DP World will receive its Harbour Empowerment Order for the new London Gateway Port.

"The Thames Gateway is one of the Government's priority growth areas and the total project will provide around 12,000 jobs for the local community.

"The order will mean that work can begin to build the first new deep sea port for many years and will provide much needed capacity for the UK's growing international trade in containers".