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Humber Freeport opens for business with ambition to attract industrial investment creating 7,000 jobs

By Mary Green | Published July 18, 2023

Immense potential highlighted at launch event as senior Whitehall figure tells stakeholders not to underestimate size and scale of opportunity

By David Laister Business Editor (Humber)

Michael Green, head of freeports with the Department for Business and Trade, left, with Jo Barnes, Sewell Estates managing director and Yorkshire Energy Park director, and Simon Bird, ABP regional director and Humber Freeport Company chair, who has led the bid.
Michael Green, head of freeports with the Department for Business and Trade, left, with Jo Barnes, Sewell Estates managing director and Yorkshire Energy Park director, and Simon Bird, ABP regional director and Humber Freeport Company chair, who has led the bid. (Image: Neil Holmes Photography Limited)
Mr Bird said: “The Humber Freeport has an outstanding and potentially unique opportunity to be not merely a source for economic growth, but the primary vehicle for the delivery of the Government’s levelling up agenda in the Humber.

“Humber Freeport will seek to secure hundreds of millions of pounds of private sector investment and the final business case conservatively estimates that such investment will create at least 7,000 new, mostly skilled, jobs. This investment will have a transformative effect in lifting the prospects of the region.”

Michael Green, head of freeports with the Department for Business and Trade, addresses guests at The Pump House on Alexandra Dock, Hull, as part of the Humber Freeport launch event.
Michael Green, head of freeports with the Department for Business and Trade, addresses guests at The Pump House on Alexandra Dock, Hull, as part of the Humber Freeport launch event. (Image: Neil Holmes Photography Ltd)

Mr Bird outlined the benefits freeport status brings to companies investing in the tax and customs sites within the Humber Freeport footprint on both banks of the Humber Estuary.

It features three defined tax sites – Hull East; Able Marine Energy Park / Immingham and Goole – each of which offers incentives for businesses operating within the zones.

Benefits include land tax relief, business rate relief, enhanced capital allowances and National Insurance contribution relief for employers. In addition, a new customs zone which has been created at Grimsby will help unlock growth in the car handling and storage sector, supporting the growth of the electric car industry.

He said investors also benefit from “assumed permitted development rights to speed up the planning process” and that “when added to being adjacent to high-quality port operations, the offer becomes even more appealing”.

With some benefits only lasting until 2026, Mr Bird said he was “looking for government to be mature and grown up” about an extension to the time it has taken to get set up. Hopes for 2030 and even 2036 were expressed, though concerns that could lead to landbanking were aired.

The freeport officially launched at a VIP event at ABP’s Grade II listed Pump House on Alexandra Dock, neighbouring Siemens Gamesa’s expanding wind turbine blade manufacturing facility.

Leading figures from the public and private sectors, marked the establishment, with all four local authorities represented, with leaders sitting on the board alongside private businesses and other organisations.

Mr Green said: “Freeports represent a generational shift. Inward investment is hugely important for job creation and regeneration and we are looking to build on the UK’s centres of excellence with targeted Government support.

The panel respond to questions at the Humber Freeport launch event at The Pump House, Alexandra Dock, Hull.
The panel respond to questions at the Humber Freeport launch event at The Pump House, Alexandra Dock, Hull. (Image: Neil Holmes Photography Ltd)

“Humber Freeport will play a key role in decarbonising industry in what is the largest industrial cluster in the UK. It will ensure the region makes the most of the unique assets it holds. 17 per cent of UK trade arrives on the Humber Estuary, and being within four hours of most areas of the UK, the size and scale of opportunity here in the Humber should not be underestimated.”

Humber Freeport will build on significant ongoing investment in the region, including Pensana’s £150 million rare earth metals processing plant, now under construction, and plans by Meld Energy to invest £180 million in a green hydrogen production facility, both at Saltend Chemicals Park, east of Hull, which sits within the freeport footprint.

Across from there Yorkshire Energy Park is emerging. Jo Barnes is the managing director of Sewell Estates, a key partner in what is set to be the UK’s first freeport-based energy and technology business park.

“This is a huge step forward for us, for all of us,” she said. “Securing freeport status is a huge opportunity for the Humber. It will significantly raise the profile of the area to potential end users and investors on the global stage.

“We’ve already got early evidence of this at Yorkshire Energy Park, with our site moving forward confidently and early site works planned for later this year in anticipation of construction commencing next year.

“The benefits are not just financial either. It’s been great to see freeport partners working together for mutual benefit, from commercial partnerships to directing end user interest or working with statutory agencies. We can tell a more coherent story about the area’s potential and the freeport can act as a catalyst for solid and sustainable growth.”