Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of freeports on the economy.

As part of the monitoring and evaluation of the Freeports programme, MHCLG commissioned an initial analysis of the expected economic impact of Freeports based on the Full Business Cases submitted by Freeports and approved by the UK Government.

The analysis projected that the eight English Freeports would create around 60,000 new and additional jobs (net direct jobs) and support a further 42,000 jobs across the supply chain. This would support a total of around £6.6 billion additional GVA per year. Scottish Green Freeports and Welsh Freeports will be incorporated into this analysis once they have completed the business case process, and the initial analysis is being refined through more detailed modelling carried out by Cambridge Econometrics.

To date, Freeports have attracted £6.4 billion in private investment, which will create over 7,200 jobs. The impact of Freeports will be closely monitored and evaluated as set out in the Freeports monitoring and evaluation strategy.