Air, Business, Freight News, Logistics, People, Road, Sea

New transport secretary flies into Heathrow storm

[ October 19, 2011   //   Chris ]

Justine Greening has become the new Secretary of State for Transport following the appointment of Philip Hammond as Defence Secretary in the wake of Liam Fox’s resignation from the latter post.  Born in 1969 in Rotherham, she is Conservative MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields – a constituency where noise and the potential expansion of Heathrow airport is a major concern.

Although she is on record as welcoming the Coalition Government’s decision to scrap plans for a third runway at the airport, the Department for Transport has rebuffed suggestions by  International Airlines Group and British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh that she faced a conflict of interest over the airport.

She was elected as the member for Putney in May 2005 and has been a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, becoming a Shadow Treasury Minister in 2007 before moving to the Communities and Local Government Team and became Shadow Minister for London in 2009.

Since the Election in May 2010, she has been Economic Secretary to the Treasury in the Coalition Government.

The Freight Transport Association has congratulated her on her appointment saying that her first-hand business experience (she has an MBA from the London Business School and was a finance manager at Centrica plc before being elected) could benefit the logistics sector.
Chief executive Theo de Pencier said: “We hope to impress on Ms Greening why the logistics sector deserves an unswerving political commitment to ensure its future success. We will be discussing with her ways in which we can better reap all the benefits that the sector brings.”

Mike Penning will continue as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport with responsibility for freight and logistics, maritime and dangerous goods.