Plymouth steps up its planning for freeport
PLYMOUTH is to submit its outline business plan for the city’s tax-break freeport in November, with a stakeholder event expected to take place early in the month.
The city was named as a recipient of one of the country’s eight new freeports by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in his March Budget this year.
It meant Plymouth stands to benefit from a £100 million investment and employment boom, with an estimated 1,000 jobs created in the first two years.
Plymouth was named as a freeport alongside East Midlands Airport, Felixstowe and Harwich, the Humber region, the Liverpool City Region, Solent, Thames, and Teesside, but it must have its case approved by ministers.
Plymouth City Council has been put in charge of producing an outline business case for what is being called the Plymouth and South Devon Freezone. It staged a stakeholder event in June and is now organising a second stakeholder gettogether, and aims to have its outline plan at Whitehall before the end of November.
A statement from the council said: “The Outline Business Case for the Plymouth and South Devon Freezone will be submitted in November.
“Updates were made to elected members via cabinets in September and the case now continues to be developed, working collaboratively with government and partners. Prior to submission in November, a formal update will be made to elected members.”
The council said a shadow board and delivery team are making “good progress on articulating our innovative Freeport offer and its benefits to the city and region, target markets and strategic rationale through the OBC (Outline Business Case).
The council added: “We will provide further updates in the coming weeks and are currently planning a second stakeholder event to be held early in November, of which details will be available in due course.” Working with Devon County Council and South Hams District Council, it needs to ensure the business case submitted to the Government reflects the ideas and priorities of stakeholders and the needs and opportunities of the region.
A “snapshot” document prepared by the council said the Freezone will “harness the power of Plymouth’s marine economy” and “unlock under-utilised employment land at Sherford and Langage”.
It said the Freezone would “bring an immediate injection of at least £20 million capital” with the cash raised in the area from the additional business rates the Freezone would generate. It insisted there would be no diversion of council funding from other priorities.
The document said there had already been “a high level of interest” from advanced manufacturing firms wanting to find a UK base. If all goes to plan, the Freezone could be up and running by summer of 2022 and could include sites at Devonport’s South Yard, Langage Energy Zone and the as yet unbuilt Sherford Business Park next to the A38. It would create space for firms to import goods and materials, add value by manufacture, and export them and leverage the city’s marine innovation strengths to attract marine sector technology companies.
A document the council produced for businesses said the Freezone could provide simpler planning procedures, infrastructure funding, and lower taxes, including full relief from Stamp Duty on the purchase of land in the Freezone, business rates relief for new businesses and some existing ones if they expand, and National Insurance Contributions relief for eligible new employees.
There could also be Customs benefits and wider Government support, and tariff benefits such as duty deferral and even lower duties if the finished goods leaving the Freezone attract lower duties than their component parts. There could even be total exemption from customs duty for goods that are processed into a finished product inside the Freezone and then exported.
However, in June, MPs criticised the Government for failing to publish a report on the economic impact of freeports.
The MPs were worried that plans to clamp down on global tax avoidance, agreed at this year’s G7 Summit in Cornwall, will actually mean firms inside the freeports gain no advantages.