'Crucial' that North East Freeport bid includes Northumberland, leaders told

The Government opened the bidding process in November to establish at least seven new freeports in England, with the first expected in 2021, as part of at least 10 across the whole of the UK.

Designed to attract major domestic and international investment, areas given freeport status will benefit from a wide package of tax reliefs, simplified customs procedures, streamlined planning processes to boost redevelopment and government support to promote regeneration and innovation.

At the Tuesday, November 24, meeting of the North of Tyne Combined Authority’s cabinet, as part of an update on preparations for Brexit, members backed further development of the North East Freeport proposal, which is estimated would lead to more than 1,000 new jobs.

The emerging model is for a ‘multi-site, digitally-enabled, zone linking key manufacturing sites with ports, including key assets in the North of Tyne area’, which covers Northumberland, North Tyneside and Newcastle.

The closing date for bids to be submitted to the Government is Friday, February 5, 2021, to be assessed the following month with decisions made in the spring.

“It’s been a very hot topic. When you ram two words together to encompass an entire approach to trade, it doesn’t really do it justice,” said North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll.

“There have been many models of freeport around the world which have simply displaced economic activity from one place to another or been opportunities for tax avoidance, so I’m very pleased at the approach we have taken in the North East for a virtual freeport, as it’s something that I think gets around those problems.

He added: “If freeports are the way, then we need to make sure that the North East does not lose out in this.”

Northumberland County Council’s leader, Cllr Glen Sanderson, agreed, saying: “I hope very much that we will continue to do all we can, working together, to ensure that the Government really does understand that we cannot miss out up here.”

The report to the meeting explained that the proposed model for the region would see goods that enter at a port registered and tracked along transport corridors to their arrival points at manufacturing sites using number plate recognition technology.

Manufactured goods could also be tracked to ports before being exported, retaining the customs and tax benefits of the freeport throughout.

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