INDUSTRY BODIES say the change should make it easier for operators to secure and expand sites for warehousing, HGV parking and depot electrification, after years of freight being treated as an afterthought in planning decisions.

Policy E3, the new standalone national decision-making policy covering freight and logistics uses, sets out how planning applications should treat warehousing, distribution centres, rail terminals, intermodal facilities, HGV operating centres, lorry parking and ports. It directs planners to favour sites close to strategic transport networks, to require electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and to provide sufficient, secure lorry parking, addressing a shortage operators have flagged for years. It also formally recognises that some logistics facilities need to operate at night.

Logistics UK, which lobbied for the change during the government’s consultation process, said several of its recommendations had been adopted, including support for roadside facilities that improve driver welfare and safety. Chief executive Ben Fletcher called the draft framework a significant step forward, while pressing for freight to be formally recognised as critical national infrastructure and for stronger protection of existing logistics land against redevelopment pressure.

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT UK) welcomed the policy on similar grounds, but flagged a more specific implication for operators pursuing fleet electrification: grid capacity. Two further changes, Policy E2 on commercial development and electricity network infrastructure, and Policy W3 on renewable and low-carbon energy, mean grid connection can now count as a material factor when planners assess where logistics development should go. Battery energy storage systems are explicitly included within the framework’s definition of low-carbon technologies, a detail relevant to any operator planning an on-site storage system to support a large EV charging hub.

Sue Terpilowski, chair of CILT UK’s public policy committee, said the framework should let planners weigh site suitability against available power from the outset, rather than approving a location and only then discovering it cannot support electric HGV charging at scale.

The framework does not remove existing planning hurdles. Development still needs to address highways, noise, landscape, ecology and flood risk, and Green Belt restrictions remain unchanged. Both bodies said the real test will be how consistently the new policy is applied by local planning authorities once finalised, and are urging operators to familiarise themselves with the changes now, ahead of future site and investment decisions.