What are freeports and what might they bring to Westcountry?

THE Conservative Party promised to set up freeports in its 2019 manifesto and in yesterday’s Budget, Rishi Sunak delivered on that pledge.

Plymouth is the only one in the South West. Others include East Midlands Airport, Felixstowe and Harwich, the Humber region, the Liverpool City Region, Solent, Thames and Teesside.

All will benefit from the post-Brexit status. Mr Sunak said the “special economic zones with different rules to make it easier and cheaper to do business” would come with simpler planning, cheaper customs – with favourable tariffs, VAT or duties – and lower taxes, with “tax breaks to encourage construction, private investment and job creation”.

The freeport model works by allowing companies to import goods tariff-free and only paying once it is sold into the domestic market, or exporting the final goods without paying UK tariffs.

In 2016, Mr Sunak – before he was given a ministerial role – authored a paper for the pro-free market think tank Centre for Policy Studies calling for freeports to be set up once the UK had left the European Union.

Tudor Evans, Labour leader of Plymouth City Council, tweeted that freeport status could bring thousands of jobs to the city and more than “£100 million in investment”.

Tim Morris, chief executive of the UK Major Ports Group, said “ambitious and exciting bids” had been recognised. He added: “However, freeports alone are not a silver bullet for addressing deprivation in coastal communities. The Government should look at extending some of the low-cost, pro-investment measures in the freeports ‘tool box’ to port areas more widely,” he said.