Harnessing our Brexit freedoms, the UK has created eight freeports, attracting jobs and investment back to our industrial heartlands, and making good on the promise of levelling up. Now is the time to go further and unleash their full potential.
For centuries, the UK has been at the forefront of technological innovation. The Industrial Revolution propelled our islands into the modern world, from the railway lines and viaducts that cross our green and pleasant land to the cranes of Belfast and warehouses of Manchester. Wages, living standards, and life expectancies have also continued to improve.
As the race to net zero heats up, a new green industrial revolution is coming and Britain is well-placed to take the lead.
Already, freeports are powering our booming net zero economy. In Teesside, following SeAH’s £300 million wind turbine factory, an extra £4 billion worth of contracts have been agreed, creating more high-skilled, high-wage jobs. In Hull, Pensana are processing rare earth metals to power turbines and electric vehicles. And on the Solent, plans are being drawn to capture carbon and develop new hydrogen fuels to decarbonise shipping.
The £1.1 billion commitment to the Green Industries Growth Accelerator in the Conservative Party’s manifesto to increase domestic manufacturing capability for renewable energy is welcome. But we must now go further.
By introducing a green premium to the existing tax breaks inside investment zones we could incentivise even more low-carbon investments. Loosening planning restrictions and streamlining environmental assessments could also encourage more on-site renewable energy generators, driving down businesses’ energy bills and reducing pressure on the grid.
Just like with any economic opportunity, speed is the name of the game, and other countries are already moving to make the most of this green revolution. And with the eyewatering sums spent under the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act and the European Union’s Green Industrial Plan, the UK risks being left behind in the race for the technologies of tomorrow.
But the left’s usual tax and spend playbook is not the solution. It serves only to drive up taxes and borrowing, stripping the value from the pound in your pocket and making the UK less competitive on the world stage.
By contrast, fiscal responsibility is a core tenet of conservatism, grounded in the belief that we have a moral obligation to the next generation. Conservatives should make the most of our new regulatory freedoms to attract private capital, reduce the burden on hardworking taxpayers, and ensure polluters pay. Freeports are key to this.
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