{"id":232,"date":"2018-06-18T16:40:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T15:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portstrategy.nfdtesting.uk\/greenport-congress\/2018\/06\/18\/supercharged-free-ports-mooted-for-uk\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:21:30","slug":"supercharged-free-ports-mooted-for-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/news\/europe\/supercharged-free-ports-mooted-for-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Supercharged\u2019 free ports mooted for UK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Commenting on the <em>Supercharged Free Ports: The ultimate boost for Britain\u2019s economy report<\/em>, Richard Ballantyne, BPA chief executive, said: \u201cEstablishing a free port alone could be quite a challenging exercise, but combining other stimulus in areas such as enterprise and planning would enable ports to grow and develop.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShould these zones be taken forward, we would expect them to be voluntary and implemented in a similar way across the country in a [manner] that does not distort competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ballantyne added that ports are economic areas that have been built up over many years, supporting jobs and businesses, and are often at the heart of their communities backing trade, offshore industries, fishing, leisure and tourism \u2014 and offering pivotal transport connections.<\/p>\n<p>Mace\u2019s idea of including enterprise stimulus in free ports is similar to the BPA\u2019s \u201c\u2018port zoning\u2019 proposals\u201d, which could feature planning, consenting and enterprise advantages for UK ports of all kinds and locations, the BPA said in a release.<\/p>\n<p>The BPA also claimed that free ports do not offer a solution to possible customs and border requirement challenges, presented by the UK\u2019s EU departure, for gateway ports, where freight simply moves through a dock, but could deliver benefits to ports where added value and industrial processes occur.<\/p>\n<p>The report from international consultancy and construction firm Mace, which also called for the designation of seven Free Ports in northern England, argued that combining free ports with Enterprise Zones (designated areas in England that provide tax breaks and UK Government support) \u201cwould be a powerful force for economic growth and job creation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to look for fresh and creative ideas for a post-Brexit economy that ensures that no region is left behind and businesses are allowed to effectively compete in the global race,\u201d it said.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The British Ports Association (BPA) has welcomed \u201cthe renewed focus on the role that ports play in regional and national UK economies\u201d in a Mace report calling for free ports to be combined with Enterprise Zones to create \u2018Supercharged Free Ports\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions\/234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}