Scrutable

Quick look at the maps of proposed freeports here https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... -freeports

The Solent one includes the New Forest national park. The Plymouth one similarly includes Dartmoor. Because where else would you find large swathes of undeveloped land, I guess?

Bird on a Fire wrote: Sat Aug 06, 2022 6:57 pm Quick look at the maps of proposed freeports here https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... -freeports

The Solent one includes the New Forest national park. The Plymouth one similarly includes Dartmoor. Because where else would you find large swathes of undeveloped land, I guess?

There are 3 types of privileges for Freeports. Freeport tax sites, Freeport customs sites, and the wider Freeport without those specific privileges.

So, for example, that Plymouth map shows in red the Freeport tax site, a small area, and in blue the broader Freeport.

Freeport customs sites enable to you bring goods in and out as if they were not in the UK for customs purposes. They require highly secure borders- ie fences, walls, with controls at the entrance and exit points. They will in general be very small, because of that fencing requirement. People will not usually live inside them.

Freeport tax sites have various tax privileges, such as relief from stamp duty and enhanced capital allowances.

I have not been able to discover, in this brief piece of looking around, ie this and various links it gives, what privileges the larger area freeports have. I imagine not very much.

National parks free from all sorts of annoying regulations. Whoop.

Yes that's been the main criticism of the UK's national parks' failure to deliver much for biodiversity. Too much red tape.

"Turning national parks into freeports" is the 2022 Mecha-Tory reboot of Cameron's (failed) Forestry Commission heist. The UK is basically a bad punchline now.

(but thanks for the fuller explanation, Ivan)

There doesn't seem to be much upside for a national park's remit - which in the UK is mainly preservation of landscapes and providing recreational space, whereas in many others they're explicitly regulated for biodiversity conservation - from any form of deregulation, AFAICT. Even just attracting more freight traffic would be bad.

A slipper slope to the undermining of democracy, aparrently https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/freepor ... and-truss/

Bird on a Fire wrote: Tue Aug 09, 2022 9:06 pm A slipper slope to the undermining of democracy, aparrently https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/freepor ... and-truss/

That's pretty much what I think about them too. Italy, I understand, has about 60 freeports and what a great and booming economy Italy has. I bet the mafias love them.

I think we shall probably have to wait and see what unfortunate ideas the Republican Conservative party might have in mind for the wider zone of "up to 45km" (interesting time to use metric units) from the freeport customs/tax zones.