The creation of eight freeports were announced in March 2021 as part of then-chancellor Rishi Sunak’s budget. The freeports, areas with tax reliefs, simplified customs procedures and streamlined planning procedures, were announced as a response to the UK’s departure from the EU with the aim of delivering new jobs, increasing international trade, boosting innovation and helping government deliver on its levelling-up agenda.
The Solent freeport, which spans some 45km across the south coast with Southampton a key focus, was one of those eight freeports created. To find out just how the freeport is helping Southampton level up, boost its innovation and deliver new jobs, EG gathered experts from the region to discuss it as part of its EG Cities series.
For the five panellists gathered, the key purpose of the freeport for Southampton and its surrounds was universal. It should enable the city to compete – not with its fellow UK cities, but for the UK.
For Gavin Hall, head of office at Savills in Southampton, the freeport is all about the UK collectively showing its strength and making sure it competes on a global scale. And Southampton, as the country’s largest export port, has a significant role to play.
“The freeport is going to be fundamental to Southampton’s (and Portsmouth’s) future because it’s their future – among Europe and the world,” he says. “If we don’t provide the space, then those operations and those occupiers and opportunities will go to Rotterdam, or to Dubai.”
United effort
With more customs and excise work still to be done post-Brexit, the amount of space required to do that work will increase, says Hall – and if Southampton, or the wider Solent area, can provide that space then networks across the country won’t get clogged up, enabling the whole country to deliver.
But the country has to collaborate, he says. “We need to come together, and we need to come together as a UK so that we actually fight above our weight with the rest of the world,” says Hall.
Stuart Irvine, senior director at planning specialist Turley, couldn’t agree more. For him, the freeport is about providing the impetus development and collaboration.
“What I’d like to see is a real collective will to look at how that delivery can be expedited and how those who are working together can work together for the aim of making sure that sites are available,” says Irvine. “What we don’t want to do is to create the aspiration and for that aspiration then to be frustrated because we’re not there to deliver on the development needs that come as a consequence of that.”
And the inability to seize upon the opportunities the freeport offers would be the biggest tragedy, says Irvine.
“That would be a disadvantage to UK plc because Southampton is unique in terms of the opportunities that exist,” he says. “We wouldn’t just be losing the opportunity to elsewhere in the country, we would be losing that opportunity on a global scale, so it is of fundamental importance that all of those development opportunities are delivered to enable us to punch our weight on that global scene.”
Improved perception
But what are those opportunities that Southampton, and its surrounds, have to seize?
For Patrick Freestone, deputy fund manager of Fiera Real Estate’s logistics development fund, the answer is – of course – logistics space. He cites a speculative urban logistics scheme Fiera is hoping to develop as an example of the dearth of supply in the wider south coast market. The firm isn’t in full planning yet, but it is still inundated with calls about space.
“Whatever can bring more supply into the south coast market will be very beneficial,” he says.
Turley’s Irvine agrees, saying logistics has been “paralysed” in the south coast region owing to a lack of large-scale site opportunities. And while he doesn’t necessarily believe that the freeport status itself will suddenly free up new opportunities, he does believe it will lead to improved infrastructure, making the logistics sector more accessible, and an improved perception of the sector as a contributor to the local economy.
“What I hope the freeport status will do is shine a light on the need for a much stronger level of delivery, both through the work that Solent LEP are doing, but also in individual local authorities,” says Irvine.
“As they allocate land through their emerging local plans they will make more provision for logistics development because without it there will be a stranglehold on growth. And I don’t think that the true aspirations will be realised unless the two go hand-in-hand.”
What all five experts agreed on was the need for Southampton and the wider south coast region to pull together to deliver on the aspirations of the freeport.
For Omega-RE managing director Nella Pang, this was about the south coast showing its resilience and fighting back a little against the profile the Northern Powerhouse has created. For Tom White, ecosystem director, maritime and ports at Connected Places Catapult, this meant the area showing its uniqueness – not trying to compete with the thousands of other freeports around the world, but being uniquely Solent and delivering the confidence occupiers, businesses and investors needed to make the freeport a success.
“There can’t be eight, nine, ten hydrogen hubs in the UK, all pitching for the same investment,” says White. “We can interact, and all be part of that different end-to-end future system, but if we’re all competing for that same investment what we’re actually doing is displacement or reducing the potential benefit to UK plc.”
He adds: “The regions need to decide their platform and what is the thing that they want to grow in. And that needs to be done in a more coordinated way, at a UK plc level that really helps enable and unlock the wider national advantage that we can get through the freeports initiative.”
Collaboration is key for the freeports initiative to work. As Savills’ Hall points out, the freeport status is fleeting, but the rates the local authorities can collect span 25 years.
The authorities, the regions and the private sector all need to work together to seize that benefit.
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