A third of all the UK’s trade in goods with the EU is handled by Dover, according to the latest figures from consultancy Oxera, which translates to a value of about £144bn. It does not have any external shareholders, and its “trust port” status prevented it from tapping investors or going to the capital markets to raise cash during the pandemic.įreight traffic has largely returned to pre-Brexit, pre-pandemic levels at the UK’s most important “ro-ro” port (so named because vehicles roll on and roll off the ships), Bannister says, although leisure travel has been recovering more slowly. The drop-off in traffic put pressure on the finances of the port, run by the Dover Harbour Board, which was granted a royal charter in 1606.
Covid repeatedly disrupted traffic on Britain’s busiest trade route, halted most leisure travel for two years, and even saw France close its border in December 2020 to all travellers, including truck drivers, from England. And I did sign up for that,” Bannister says.Įven if, on arrival, he was pleasantly surprised at the port’s preparations for Brexit, he never could have forecast the other storm clouds gathering on the horizon. “It was such a significant transformation that the nation was going through, and Dover is the epicentre of that activity. As negotiations dragged on, Brexit was delayed for another year, but when it came, the change was seismic.
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