Remember Liz Truss’s plan last summer to carpet-bomb Britain with investment zones? These were not just freeports – these would be zones modelled on the most anarchic capitalist zones in the world. There would be no tiresome planning laws, no irksome regulations, minimal labour laws, little taxation and only the lightest veneer of democracy. For Truss and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, these would be the ultra-libertarian battering rams to ignite the capitalism flame – covering almost every city and town in the country.
The idea did not survive their passing: Truss wanted an uncapped number, while even Kwarteng accepted the Treasury argument that the loss of tax revenue – estimated to be £12bn – if the government went full Truss was unacceptable. There had to be some limit, otherwise there would simply be a mass diversion of economic activity into the “investment zones” and little extra investment. It was a fool’s mission. The present chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, laid the whole plan quietly to rest, while persevering with a softer and mildly less mad version of the same idea – freeports.
