TORY MSPs and councillors have warned their colleagues in Westminster that rejecting Glasgow’s green freeport bid would represent a lasting economic failure for the country.
In a letter to Levelling-Up Secretary Greg Clark, the group said it was “absolutely critical” one of the low-tax enterprise zones was created in “Scotland’s industrial and trading heartland”.
The UK and Scottish Governments are currently jointly assessing bids from five sites around Scotland, only two of which will be granted freeport status later this year.
Promoted by Peel Ports, and covering Glasgow Airport and the Mossend Railhead in North Lanarkshire, the Glasgow Green Freeport bid is the only one in the west of the country.
The others on the shortlist are on the east coast or the Northern Isles.
The Firth of Forth Green Freeport plan straddles three councils, taking in Grangemouth in Falkirk, Leith in Edinburgh, and Rosyth in Fife.
The other three are the Aberdeen City and Peterhead Green Freeport, the Opportunity Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport and the Orkney Green Freeport.
Designed to boost economic growth by offering tax breaks and other incentives to businesses within them, freeport zones can be 45km across.
The Scottish scheme is being backed by £52million from the Treasury.
In their letter to Mr Clark - which is also going to SNP deputy First Minister John Swinney - the seven Tory MSPs and 29 councillors from west and central Scotland urge both governments to recognise Glasgow as the strongest of the five bids in contention.
It has the potential to “transform our area by attracting investors, fuelling enterprise, increasing exports and creating thousands of high-quality new jobs,” they write.
“Clyde Green Freeport’s multi-modal bid covers air, sea and rail. It will unlock global trade, promote regeneration and repurpose 600 hectares of vacant and derelict land.
“Not only will this bring immense benefits to the region, but it will also boost the wider Scottish and UK economy.”
They then warn ministers of the consequences of not picking Glasgow.
“We believe that to maximise the huge economic benefits a successful green freeport bid would deliver, it is absolutely critical that one of the two designated Scottish locations is based in the west.
“Failure to create a freeport within Scotland’s industrial and trading heartland would represent a missed opportunity and a failure to achieve the radical and long-term benefits that are possible.
“People in the west of Scotland will be encouraged by the co-operation between ministers in both our governments, UK and Scottish, and we would urge you to reach the logical conclusion of backing the Clyde Green Freeport.”
The signatories include MSPs Jackson Carlaw, Russell Findlay, Pam Gosal, Jamie Greene, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, Annie Wells, and Meghan Gallacher.
The SNP initially refused to work with London on freeports, saying they were “tarnished” by association with smuggling, tax dodging, and bad pay and work conditions.
But after the UK pushed ahead with eight freeports in England and one in Wales, the Scottish Government relented, provided the Scottish sites were “green freeports”.
Extra safeguards in Scotland include all operators required to adopt fair work practices, including union recognition, the real living wage and no zero hour contracts.
The sites must also contribute to Scotland’s pursuit of net zero carbon emissions.
However the SNP’s partners in government, the Scottish Greens, remain fiercely opposed to the ports, saying they will “hand tax breaks and public money to rich corporations”.
It is understood a decision on which two Scottish sites will get the green light is expected within weeks, with the hope both are operating by next spring.
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