It has been another busy week and on Wednesday the Chancellor delivered one of the most important budgets of recent years. The government has had to spend billions supporting the economy through the last year and now we are beginning to see how they are going to pay for it.

Overall we were pleased with what was announced. Protecting employment until we emerge from the Covid crisis is paramount for all sectors including shipping and the continuation of the furlough scheme and new business relief loans will help support the economy, our members and their workers. We were also pleased to see the announcement on Freeports, which we believe is a bold and dynamic policy initiative, and we look forward to working with the new Freeports across the country.

As we recover from Covid, it is also imperative we help those seeking a career in maritime. We wholeheartedly support the new apprentices’ initiative, and we will continue to do all we can to promote careers at sea to the next generation of school and college leavers.

The environment is always at the front of our thinking and the budget includes several schemes for renewables and R&D which we are looking at with interest. As ever the devil is in the detail but generally we thought it was a sensible Budget with some good announcements.

At the beginning of the week I was invited to the first meeting of the new Global Travel Taskforce. The meeting was chaired by the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Health Secretary Matt Hancock. It was a really positive meeting, with discussions around how the new GTT will work, how the Taskforce will be structured and engage with industry. Over the coming weeks I look forward to putting the case for our members to the Taskforce so we can open up domestic and international tourism as soon as possible, whilst ensuring seafarers and offshore workers are able to travel to and from their place of work.

I was delighted to sign the Maritime UK Mental Health in Maritime Pledge this week, joining many other organisations in recognising the need to do more to support workers across the maritime sector with mental health support. You can read more about the pledge here.

In under two weeks I will be co-hosting the next Seafarers UK Maritime Quiz with former Shipping Minister Nusrat Ghani. You can book your place for the quiz here and if anyone has any prizes you could donate, please do get in touch with Charlotte Ward from Seafarers UK. Nus has already donated a bottle of signed whisky, so lets see if we can match, or better that!

Next week we will be hosting our Maritime Labour Convention Course. Places are still available and you can book your ticket on our website. It is a fascinating course which will be hosted by our Policy Director Tim Springett, and a key subject area for the industry.