For centuries, the Port of Liverpool has been at the epicentre of the city region’s economy. Now ambitious plans are being put forward to ensure this continues well into the future.
THE River Mersey is the largest natural asset of the Liverpool City Region (the five Merseyside boroughs plus Halton).
For centuries, its port has sustained economic and social activities both near and far, into the North West and beyond. Moreover, the Port of Liverpool provides the city and its hinterland with a highly distinctive image that is recognised instantly throughout the world.
About 40 years ago, Liverpool University was awarded a research grant by the Leverhulme Trust to carry out a three-year study, whose objective was to estimate as accurately as possible the socio-economic impact of the Port’s operations throughout the UK, and especially in Merseyside and its hinterland.
Companies whose business was connected to the port were classified in four ways: firms wholly dependent, predominantly those involved in stevedoring, pilotage, freight forwarding, and shipping agency functions; suppliers to the Port – machinery, victuals, etc; shippers and ships; and dockland zone firms not wholly dependent upon the port.
Employment, income (salaries/wages), and expenditure data from the study revealed that up to about 90,000 jobs throughout the UK, including 40,000 full-time equivalent jobs in Merseyside, were related to the Port of Liverpool; much of the remaining 50,000 jobs were concentrated in the North West.
The income and expenditure effects were quite similar in their extent.
It was clear that the socio-economic health of Liverpool and its hinterland was associated significantly with its port's business activities.
A subsequent smaller-scale study in 1990 by Liverpool University and a much more recent study by MDS Transmodal, in 2009, confirmed these findings.
Forty years on, the port has seen significant changes, especially in respect of the growth in container traffic and ship size.
A consequence of these developments has been a big reduction in direct dock labour, from over 10,000 in 1970 to just a few hundred today.
