Teesside Freeport is Best Performing in the Country

Newly released official statistics have named the Teesside Freeport as the best performing freeport in the UK.

The statistics handed to the Business and Trade Parliamentary Committee by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities show the Teesside Freeport to be outperforming the other eight zones in terms of ‘Total Investment’, ‘Foreign Direct Investment’ (FDI), and ‘Current Employment’.

Of the 5,740 jobs that have been created nationally in Freeport areas, more than one third of these (2,150) have already been delivered in Teesside. This news comes fresh off the back of confirmation that 9,000 jobs have been contractually secured on the Teesworks site which forms part of the wider Teesside Freeport.

In terms of Investment, Teesside again leads the way by a significant margin, securing £1.1billion of capital expenditure. This can be broken down further with Government figures showing £500million coming from domestic sources and £602million coming by the way of FDI.

To put this is context, the next best performing Freeport, with regard to secured investment, is the Humber who have secured £516million – less than half of the amount pulled in by Teesside.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said, “What we are doing is working, it’s transformational, and now we have further proof of this in black and white.

“I secured a Freeport for Teesside back in 2021 knowing it could bring huge amounts of investment and jobs for local people, and truly change the fortunes of our area.

“However, securing Freeport status was only the beginning and we had to make sure we got on with the job and delivered for the people of Teesside, Darlington, and Hartlepool.

“This data shows not only are we delivering jobs and investment to the local area but that we are leading the way nationally.

“We can be immensely proud of the progress we have made to provide new opportunities for hardworking, local people, and my message is clear – we are just getting going.”

These performance results come just a week after the Freeport secured it newest investor in Tees Valley Graphite, who signed a deal to base their operation on the Wilton site.

They join a raft of other investments, including those of SeAH Wind, and bp who have all announced investments in the Freeport area.