The Commons Business and Trade Committee has published the terms
of reference for its inquiry into investment zones and freeports
in England.
MPs on the Committee will seek to measure the impact that
investment zones and freeports are having on business and trade
and where the cash put towards the projects has been spent so
far.
The inquiry will also examine potential benchmarks against which
to measure their effectiveness.
Chair's comment
Business and Trade Committee Chair, , said,
““The government hopes that freeports and investment zones
will transform regional economies, but we don’t yet have an
agreement on how success should be measured.”
“With hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers money being
fed into this economic development zones we will want to see how
freeports and investment zones are different to the previous
announcements, including enterprise zones/areas, local economic
partnerships, city deals, combined authorities and power
houses.”
Both investment zones and freeports offer incentives such as
lower tax and the relaxation of customs duties to attract
businesses to areas with the aim of driving economic growth and
job creation.
8 freeports have been set up in England after the Government
committed in their 2019 manifesto to their creation. Meanwhile,
in March Chancellor confirmed plans for 12
investment zones in the UK, of which 8 will be in England.
Terms of reference
The Committee is accepting evidence submissions on any of the
questions below, through the inquiry evidence submission
page, until 11.59pm on Friday 8 September:
- What is the current status of investment zones in England?
- How will/should these differ to enterprise zones, freeports,
power houses and combined authorities?
- What should success look like for an investment zone and how
will this be measured and reported on?
- What is the current status of freeports in England? What has
the funding – that has been allocated so far – been spent on?
What progress has been made and what needs to happen next?
- Do businesses and/or investors see freeports as an investable
proposition today? If not, what needs to change for that to be
the case?
- What does success look like for these freeports and how will
this be measured and reported on?
- Are the current governance structures for freeports adequate?
- Was the process for selecting the location of freeports
suitable? Have opportunities been missed?
- Are government departments providing the support required for
freeports to become a success? If not, what is missing?
