Teesport Middlesborough Transporter Bridge

UK port owners and operators have welcomed the government’s decision to open the competitive bidding process for the development of up to 10 freeports.

However, with the deadline for submission of bids just 12 weeks away, there was also criticism that the government is trying to ...

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  • Neil Davidson

    November 17, 2020 at 4:48 pm

    It’s understandable that UK port operators are enthusiastic about the current government plans. If you have the opportunity for your port area to become a preferred enterprise zone with favourable planning rules and tax benefits, why wouldn’t you?
    But how much of the “new” business will simply be existing jobs and economic activity relocating from now disadvantaged locations in the rest of the UK? The government has said that when assessing bids from UK ports, it will consider any potential displacement impacts and that “bidders will be invited to provide evidence and potential displacement mitigations as part of their bids”.