Online shopping and a rise in consumerism will see HGV trips jump by 40,000 a day by 2025, claims real estate business Colliers.

Dr Walter Boettcher, the company’s head of research and economics in the UK, published a report which also suggests at least an additional 54.5 million square feet of industrial logistics space, including warehouses - equal to more than 710 Wembley-sized football pitches - will also be needed by 2025 to meet existing shortfall and meet anticipated growth.

“With transport accounting for approximately 30 per cent of all territorial carbon dioxide emissions in the UK in 2020, it is clear this needs to be a focus area if the UK is to meet its net zero target,” said Boettcher. “The distribution model in place for the growing volume of e-commerce is not without its problems.

“One being that it has a substantial environmental footprint that may equal, if not exceed, that of traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ retailing. Furthermore, the anticipated large-scale repurposing of ‘bricks and mortar’ retail assets into other uses could unwittingly exacerbate the problem and act to undermine the path to net zero.”

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