Description
Freeports were (re)introduced to the UK in 2019 as a part of its post-EU trade strategy. The aim was to help level up poorer regions of the UK by bringing in private investment and connecting to global supply chains. There is a general consensus that Freeports have not fulfilled the hopes for (or fears of) a radical deregulated special economic zone. The eight English Freeports have evolved to be very different in geographical scale, focus and institutional form. The new Labour government has pledged to continue and expand them. All of this begs the question as to what their role is? Strategic-relational state theory (Jessop, 2007) offers one theoretical lens for understanding them. Ensembles of local actors (public and private) have connected with the state to gain resources and encourage investment. Yet the more strategic implications of this theory seem less relevant: it is not clear how effectively the central government is steering them or how they fit into any kind of national spatial industrial strategy. To explore this question, this paper engages in a documentary analysis and interviews of local elites (in two Freeports in particular) to analyse how they have developed, as well as how they relate to central government and global geoeconomic forces.
