A bid to grant the East Midlands free port status has been submitted to the government. The proposal claims that it will be able to 'deliver a unique inland Freeport at the heart of the UK with unrivalled rail connectivity to all UK ports and bring significant investment to develop and drive innovation, alternative energy sources and green technologies, creating close to 60,000 new skilled jobs to areas of deprivation in the East Midlands' (NWDC).
If successful the free port would cover the East Midlands Airport and Gateway Industrial Cluster in North West Leicestershire, Uniper's Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station site in Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands Intermodal Park in South Derbyshire.
Last year, the government set out its intention to create 10 new freeports across the UK. Conservative MP and Chancellor, Rishi Sunak claimed that these will be ‘national hubs for trade, innovation and commerce, regenerating communities across the UK and supporting jobs' (GreenWorld). The government has since confirmed that UK Freeports will 'benefit from streamlined planning processes to aid brownfield redevelopment, a package of tax reliefs to help drive jobs, growth, and innovation and simplified customs procedures and duty suspensions on goods' (NWDC).
So, what is a free port anyway? It is an area geographically inside a country, but legally outside of that country's customs territory. It allows goods to be moved in and out of an area within a country without tariffs.
But, why? Well, imagine it this way, a car manufacturing plant based in the UK needs parts to be able to manufacture each car. They may import each part from various countries around the world, this could be because costs are lower or they use particular natural resources or raw materials. Each time the manufacturer receives these components they face import tariffs. Import and export tariffs are essentially a tax imposed by governments on goods - they provide revenue for the government whilst regulating foreign trade. Once all of the parts are in the manufacturing plant the car is then assembled and sold. A free port essentially provides a tariff free area in which goods can be moved around freely whilst relieving businesses of such taxes (and without getting into the Brexit debate, this was one of the main benefits of the EU single market).
Did the EU prevent us from having Free Ports? Despite Sunak's claim in 2019 that “The EU is the only place where these [free ports] really don’t exist…”, there are in fact around 80 free ports within the EU. Nor did EU membership prevent the UK from having free ports. There were five free ports within the UK prior to 2012 when the UK government allowed the domestic laws that set up those ports to expire.
So even though the EU did not prevent the UK from creating or having free ports, the EPRS outlined the 'money laundering, tax evasion and tax avoidance risks connected with free zones, particularly those that function as (semi-) permanent storage for high value goods, often referred to as 'free ports'. Therefore, free ports are likely to become more regulated within the EU. Rishi Sunak produced a Centre for Policy Studies report focused on free ports and suggested that leaving the EU would enable free ports to create new opportunities. Not the kind of fair and regulated opportunity seen in European free ports but probably more like the opportunity which friends of our government have recently seen, just look at this , this , this and this and...well you get the idea! Given the fact that Sunak, the richest MP in parliament is accused of storing his wealth in tax havens, I expect that any new UK free ports will be less regulated, more open to tax avoidance and evasion and geared at the richest.
Anyway, back to our patch...the bid has support from a number of MPs across the East Midlands. An entire list of those MPs which support the bid can be found here. They claim this bid would be a...
"Green freeport here in the heart of the East Midlands" (Ruth Edwards, MP for Rushcliffe)
"Ensure the East Midlands leads the way in a global, and greener, Britain" (Alicia Kearns, MP for Rutland and Melton)
"Britain's...greenest free port" (Lee Rowley, MP for North East Derbyshire)
Now, I do not disagree that the East Midlands has a strategic location in the heart of our country and can play a pivotal role in the green transformation which is so desperately needed. This bid however, is not that. Whilst this might be sold as a green opportunity to drive investment, increase transport links and create new jobs, if successful, this free port will encourage the unhealthy obsession with growth, commit us to decades more of fossil fuels reliant transport and simply lead to a relocation of jobs.
Growth sounds great doesn't it?! We all want things to be bigger, better and well, fully grown...but that’s exactly the problem with the current system for measuring growth. There is no end point. You can't shout BINGO and win. There is no point for a pat on the back nor a celebration of all our hard work. No, we must keep on growing. In order for us to keep growing the country must be populated with big, fat businesses. These million and billion pound businesses fatten up the economy and allow the treasury to demonstrate how much the country is growing. So for these BIG businesses to keep nice and fat people must keep spending and shopping. In order for that to happen new and exciting products and services need to be sold. This creates a vicious and never ending cycle. It has created an attitude which allows companies to refuse to repair our broken electrical goods because it’s cheaper for them to make a new one. This culture of consumption which has been engrained in our society is destroying our planet. It actively encourages poor craftmanship, the disposal of unwanted goods, the purchase of new ones and the overconsumption of irreplaceable natural resources. This system is specifically designed to prevent satisfaction, leave desires unfulfilled and drive an unrelenting craving for more. Now this doesn't mean that we should close all of the shops and stop making anything, but instead rethink what we make, how we make it, what from and then ensure it lasts or can be repaired. In order to do this we must stop calculating the success of our nation on the ability to buy and sell unnecessary goods and instead value factors such as how well our health care system is operating, the quality of education and the preservation of our environment.
So, what’s this got to do with the East Midlands free port? Well, as I explained earlier, free ports are specifically designed to encourage sales, attract investment and drive damaging levels of growth. I have a huge passion for shopping locally and supporting British manufacturing, why wouldn't I? It has a positive impact on our environment and local communities! There are ways to support our community but this free port quite simply is not one of them. This free port will allow unregulated foreign investment which demands low quality and vast profits, not for workers, nor investment into our communities, but for each investor to take back overseas.
Public transport. Surely, I can't complain about that?! Don't Green's like me just love anything with stripy felt seats held together by rock hard chewing gum? Well...kinda! Public transport plays a vital role in linking our communities and is central to a green transformation, but like all things it needs to be done properly. Think of HS2, it’s a train - HOORAY - but it's also destroying vast swathes of ancient woodland and actually fails to provide many new links to the communities that actually need them - BOO! This East Midlands free port bid is essentially the same thing (partly because the plan incorporates HS2 as a key link).
The proposal also relies on an increase in air traffic. Now for the most part that isn't people like me and you going on our annual family holiday, in fact East Midlands airport is the UK's largest freight airport. So there is going to be an increase in all those cheap, plastic goods and the parts which make the irreparable electric goods arriving here in the East Midlands. By removing the tariffs on goods coming to the East Midlands free port we will see many UK business relocate (away from the communities they were a part of) and new businesses created. These businesses which are being encouraged to drive growth will produce more environmentally damaging products, sourced partly or wholly from abroad, and will increases air traffic and therefore air pollution too. Even if these transport links were, and they are not, 100% sustainable, they would still be owned by private corporations. These companies, as we already know, can charge what they like for tickets, run late and provide an awful service and still be completely unaccountable.
Yet again, we are being told that there will be JOBS GALORE. There will be one for you, another for your grandma, one for your dog and well maybe even one for me! Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that this scheme will create many more jobs at all. 'The incentives may also promote the relocation of activity that would have taken place anyway, from one part of the UK to another' according to the UK Trade Policy Observatory. It seems clear that, if one part of the UK has fewer taxes, more incentives and better investment than the rest of the country, business would pack up and relocate. This is one of my biggest concerns. The UK already is already littered with struggling high streets and given the situation with Covid-19 many business are suffering even more. With that in mind, you can understand why many of them would consider leaving their town or city and begin trading from the new tariff free zone. Now that sounds great for the businesses that could move there but what about everyone else? The highstreets? The loss of local jobs? The disappearance of community entrepreneurship? The EU (not that I am wading into that debate) provided single market access for the entire country, we all followed the same rules, whether you lived in Nottingham, Birmingham, Paris or Berlin. Now, certain areas of the UK are going to be granted a special access - an air pocket - in which they can trade freely with the outside world whilst the rest of the country suffers. The only businesses which can afford to relocate are those with wealthy backers. The big fat businesses which prop up the false impression of success set by growth, are going to be cram into these free ports. The free ports are going to provide access for a minority of the UKs business population and starve the rest of the country of investment and any sort of attention from government.
It seems this is the path which the government is intent on pursuing. Both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are advocates of opening up these bubbles to foreign investment and removing any kind of government accountability. Conservative politicians provide such advantages to big businesses because at election time nice big donations quite often appear in the post. These free ports are being sold to us as a green transformation, as new ways for job creation and as a way of 'levelling-up' our country. They are nothing other than blatant attempts at creating opportunities for big business who rely on endless growth. These free ports will become centres for big private corporations and cronyism in which a select few can import and export freely, move their money around and reap the rewards whilst the rest of us our locked out of the bubble.
I believe we should strive for a green transformation, the creation of new jobs and rejuvenation of all of our communities. The government should instead be unlocking the plethora of jobs in the renewable energy sector rather than slashing their subsidies, they should be stimulating jobs by building decent, sustainable public housing and delivering efficient, well-run and sustainable transport solutions. By handing over the keys to the private corporations who are intent on maximising profits we are going to see further erosion of all that our communities stand for. The UK desperately needs a government which will provide good quality services for its people and allow all of us to feel the benefits. We cannot accept the half-hearted spin sold to us by both the Conservatives and Labour. Dressing up damaging projects in pretty flowers is not enough. We deserve so much better.
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