MPs to question senior executives and regional leaders on Freeports and Investment Zones
Are Freeports delivering local jobs and economic growth? The cross-party Business and Trade Committee will examine whether they are and how they are run in a session with senior executives from freeports and investment zones in Liverpool, East Midlands, Sheffield and South Devon.
Meeting details
MPs on the Committee will also question regional leaders Ben Bradley MP, Leader, Nottinghamshire County Council, and Oliver Coppard, Mayor, South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, about the expected benefits of and the rationale for Investment Zones, the first of which is expected to open within a year.
Freeports and Investment Zones are both key pillars of the Government’s strategy to spark economic growth. However, at the previous session of the Committee’s Performance of Investment Zones and Freeports in England inquiry, academics told MPs that questions remain over claims that Freeports and Investment Zones increase productivity and improve growth, and whether Freeports might attract organised crime.