Exclusive: BM’s new president sets out his hopes for the new government . . . that it’s boring

Labour has swept to office today with what’s being described as a ‘historic landslide’ in the UK’s general election. It could be argued this is a time of political upheaval in the country, but really, in the past nine or so years, when hasn’t been?

“I’ll be quite happy if government and politics goes boring and settles down and gets on with looking after the country,” says Robert Parton, who begins his presidency of British Marine on 18 July.

Although British Marine set out its official priorities earlier this year with its list of wants for a future government’s actions, Parton’s the first to laugh at his personal viewpoint. But he clarifies that “for all the noise, the economy is growing inflation is at two per cent, interest rates are at five and a half, it’s hardly a disaster is it?

“We’ve got pretty full employment and we need to be careful that actually, for all the hot air and noise about how bad things are, they could be an awful lot worse. We need to be careful that they [Labour] don’t go and break it. The whole campaign has been very ‘boring’ and not revolutionary, trying to paint a picture of calm, well, I hope they don’t break it.”

Marine sector needs to retain flexible employment strategy

Within the employment sphere, Parton warns against some policies he’s heard mooted, specifically at a British Chamber of Commerce conference he recently attended. With circa 30 employees on his payroll, he laughingly says he’s “bound to say” that talking about making employees rights much stronger from day one, will “be a disaster for employment.”

Parton notes as an employer (he owns Aqueduct Marina, Nantwich, Cheshire), he wants to be able to be flexible and take people on, but if they’re ‘no good’, he wants to be able to ‘get rid of them’. He says the rules now are “about right” and the new government needs to be careful that it doesn’t make the rules a disincentive to employing people.

But more than that, Parton is looking for a positive future and hopes the new government recognises the current planning process is onerous.

“It’s unbelievably difficult. If they [government] want UK plc to grow, they need to free up that system and then you’d see some investment. To get anything going for a new cafe or a marina, the process means you have to spend so much money up front it puts you off doing it. They need to speed up, and streamline, the system so you can get a ‘yes’ even if it’s conditional. The environmental, net-gains stuff is becoming so onerous it’s stopping businesses from even bothering to start the processes.”

UK marine sector strategy

Parton says it’d be good to have a government that’s in place for more than five years, with time enabling it to put a strategy down – and of course, British Marine would be on hand to help them get the right strategy.

Businesses doing good work with marine sustainability

He gives sustainability as an example, saying the government needs to nurture that and encourage developments. “There’s quite a lot of British Marine members and businesses doing a lot of good work. Hydrogen, electric, testing stuff, trying stuff, bringing stuff to market. We underestimate how good we are in this country at some of this, we need to make sure they [government] and the wider country know it.”

Investment needed in inland waterways

Parton is a marina owner – his is in Cheshire. So it’s not surprise that he has a passion for promoting the inland waterways. He’d like to see more investment in the network, and believes the Thames could be a real crown-jewel of navigation.

“The navigation authority, CRT, are struggling to keep the network open – there is a lock by us which has closed down for a couple of weeks in the middle of peak season – the amount of money which the government needs to put it – in the scheme of things – for the return on that is so small. It’d be nice if the government would take a long-term view on life.

“Let’s hope we can make the case that they re-open the funding. The economic net funding gain for the inland navigation authority – whether it’s the broads, the canals, or Thames – the return is so great.”

Parton concludes: “The agenda could be quite powerful. We have some clever stuff going on. It could be quite exciting.”