Low taxes and levelling up: the great freeport experiment comes to Teesside

Low taxes and levelling up: the great freeport experiment comes to Teesside

There is demolition work at every turn on Teesside, from the increasingly regular explosions heard across Redcar, as the old steelworks is blasted to pieces, to the cranes taking down nearby Wilton International’s coal-fired power plant.

“The site has seen better days,” said Andy Koss of Sembcorp Industries, which manages the Wilton International complex. “For the region as a whole it has been a tough time, with the gradual erosion of industry at Wilton. And then the closure of the steelworks was a massive blow.”

On what is Europe’s largest brownfield site, work is gathering pace as Teesside prepares for the launch of the government’s new freeport, with hopes that the designation as a low-tax special economic zone will reboot the local economy.