Freeport plan receives mixed response
SCHEME COULD BRING THOUSANDS OF JOBS - BUT CRITICS WARN OF ‘RACE TO BOTTOM’ ON PAY
BUSINESSES on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal could benefit from tax reliefs, a reduction in red tape and increased investment with Freeport status.
Port Salford, an inland port in Eccles which opened in 2016, will be part of the Liverpool City Region’s new Freeport announced in the Budget last week.
Up to 10,000 jobs could be created at the site where a further 320,000sqm of employment space is planned alongside a new rail link – but the developer behind the scheme says its success does not depend on its Freeport status.
Peel L&P now awaits further information from the government about how the Freeport will work and what part Port Salford will play as a customs site.
But the landowner is ‘delighted’ about the decision to approve the Liverpool City Region’s bid for a Freeport, saying Port Salford ‘strengthened’ the case.
Salford mayor Paul Dennett, a self-described ‘sensible socialist,’ has also welcomed the news despite concerns about Freeports within Labour ranks.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak says Freeports will regenerate regions across the country which need it most by bringing in investment, trade and jobs. By relaxing regulatory rules, businesses that operate within a Freeport could cut costs, attracting investment which could create more jobs.
But critics say deregulated Freeports could encourage a ‘race to the bottom.’
Sarah Longlands, director of think tank IPPR North, says any jobs created in Salford as a result of Freeports would be low-paid and fears these jobs would simply be ‘displaced’ from elsewhere. She said: “Companies will see the Freeport and shift their premises there and not actually create new jobs, but just move them from one place to the next.” Salford council is set to sign off the next stage of the Port Salford plans today, swapping land with Peel L&P, some of which is green belt and public open space, so that the construction of a rail link can take place. Labour MP Barbara Keeley for Worsley and Eccles South, the constituency in which Port Salford is located, was critical of the plans.
She said: “Despite the Chancellor’s rhetoric, there is no evidence that new freeports will create any new jobs in Salford or anywhere else.”
Companies will not actually create new jobs, but just move them from one place to the next.
Sarah Longlands, IPPR North