When the Chancellor Rishi Sunak presented the budget on 3 March 2021 he proudly announced that Britain will get eight new freeports. He said:
“A policy we can only pursue now we’re outside the European Union:
Freeports.
Freeports are special economic zones with different rules to make it easier and cheaper to do business.”
Read the whole speech at the Government’s website.
It’s an idea that was floated by Boris Johnson in 2019 during his candidacy for leadership together with a misleading statement that we had to wait until after Brexit.
Facts show, however, that presently there are some 80 freeports in the EU and Britain actually had five freeports up until 2012, when the then conservative government chose to not renew the legislation for them.
Photo: © Ilyas Tayfun Salci/Shutterstock
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