Chapter 3 Port Privatisation in the United Kingdom

This chapter considers developments and changes in port policy and regulation occurring in the United Kingdom over the last few decades. This provides relevant contextual background relating to the issues and arguments surrounding the sale of former state-owned ports in the UK, the different methods of disposal employed, the associated liberalisation of dockworking and the legislative framework. It is argued that there were two distinct phases of port privatisation in the UK, with phase I involving the sale of state-owned ports and railway ports in the early 1980s, and phase II the disposal of major trust ports. However, it remains that the method and approach used to privatise ports in the UK differs markedly from the privatisation process for ports in most other countries, very few actually selling off port land. Port privatisation in the UK was never about creating new and improved port infrastructure and facilities to benefit the economy, which was the aim in other countries; it was simply a mechanism used to remove port assets from public ownership. This raises issues related to the aims and objectives of seaports and the role of government in this regard. The wider purpose of seaports in facilitating trade and generating economic and social benefits still tends to be stressed by public-owned (but private operated) ports in most other countries, whereas the narrower profit-making goal of private enterprise is paramount in the UK.