The Foreign Secretary says she will transform disused brownfield sites into 'full-fat freeports' to turbocharge investment in Britain

Liz Truss has unveiled plans to build 21st-century model villages to house the workers of “a new industrial revolution” which would be unleashed by low-tax business zones. 

The Tory leadership frontrunner said she would transform disused brownfield sites up and down the country into “full-fat freeports” to turbocharge investment in Britain. 

She has pledged to get private enterprises growing faster than the public sector and return the UK’s economic performance to pre-Brexit levels by the end of the decade. 

Writing in The Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary said she would reverse the country’s “managed decline” by “seizing our new-found freedoms outside the European Union”. 

“My economic plan will help light the spark for a new industrial revolution and make our economy a lodestar for the rest of the world,” she said. 

“It is designed to turn our economy into a high-growth, highly-productive powerhouse by cementing its status as the best place in the world to invest.

“At this time of great global challenges, we cannot take a business-as-usual approach to the economy. We need to be bold and embrace true Conservative economics.”

✅ I have a clear @Conservatives plan and vision for our country and economy. ✅ I will deliver and get things done from day one. Join the team: https://t.co/koPyqw4wIG#LizForLeader

Under her plan, companies would benefit from reduced tax levels, stripped back planning restrictions and targeted reductions in red tape at a network of new “investment zones”. 

It would massively expand the Government’s freeports policy and remove the ability of Whitehall civil servants “to pick the winners and losers” of pro-business policies. 

Ms Truss said the blueprint would “open the floodgates to new waves of investment” and encourage the construction of new model villages like Bournville and Saltaire. 

The two towns were amongst more than two dozen settlements built by Victorian business owners during the first industrial revolution to house workers at their factories. 

Bournville, on the outskirts of Birmingham, and Saltaire outside Bradford are famed for their architecture and have been ranked among the best places in the country to live. 

Their modern equivalents would become home to the employees of “the industries of the future” including artificial intelligence, the Foreign Secretary said. 

Ms Truss would rip up bureaucracy to allow for quicker building whilst working with local communities and councils to identify the best sites for redevelopment. 

She also had a swipe at her leadership rival, Rishi Sunak, over his plan not to cut taxes on businesses or families until autumn next year at the earliest. 

“I am the only candidate who will cut taxes, due to my firm belief in doing the right thing by rewarding people for their hard work,” she said. 

“I will take on the Treasury orthodoxy and ensure Whitehall gets out of the way of our job creators.”

Ms Truss plans to return annual growth to 2.5 per cent by 2030 - a rate last achieved in 2015 excluding last year when the economy was rebounding from the pandemic. 

Mr Sunak was a driving force behind plans to open eight new freeports across England plus one each in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland when he was chancellor.

He said they will “create jobs and prosperity around the country” and that “now we need to put our foot on the accelerator and deliver much more”. 

“My ambition is that the UK should become by far the richest country in Europe within the next 15 years,” he wrote in The Telegraph. 

The first freeport opened in Teesside last November and is expected to create more than 18,000 jobs and provide a £3.2billion boost to the local economy over the next five years.

Further sites have been earmarked at the Thames Estuary, Harwich, Liverpool, Hull, Southampton, East Midlands Airport and Plymouth.

Plans for low tax zones in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been held up because they have to be agreed with the devolved administrations. 

Freeports are allowed under EU rules and several were opened under Margaret Thatcher’s premiership before being shut by David Cameron in 2012. 

But the low tax zones are heavily frowned upon by Brussels, which limits the scope of tax breaks that can be offered to companies. 

Ms Truss’ plan to massively expand their use is being backed by Lord Grimstone, a Tory peer, former business minister and chairman of Barclays Bank. 

“Investment will be key to delivering economic growth. It drives jobs, innovation, and helps to level up the whole of the UK,” he said. 

“These investment zones - like the development corporations brought in under Thatcher - will make it easier than ever before for investors to set up shop in the UK, creating vital new jobs and businesses. 

“Liz’s plan is the only one that will strengthen our international competitiveness and help maintain our title as the most attractive investment destination in the world.”

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