Today we have written to the new Secretary of State for International Trade Liz Truss MP and the newly appointed Freeports Advisory Panel she announced last week to ask them to consider Slough as one of the up to ten proposed new ‘Freeports’ that the government are looking to establish post-Brexit.

We believe that Slough – with its connections to the wider world through Heathrow, it’s strategic location advantage at the meeting point of three of the busiest motorways in the country, it’s diverse globally-connected communities and strong commercial base – is well placed to be at the centre of government plans to super-charge our country’s global economy once we leave the European Union on October 31st.

Freeports are hubs for business and enterprise that could be free of unnecessary checks and paperwork, and include customs and tax benefits, reducing costs and bureaucracy, and encouraging manufacturing businesses to set up. The most successful Freeports globally attract businesses and create jobs for local people.

It is time that rather than be negative about Brexit – as the Labour-run council have been recently around trading standards, and as local Labour MP Tan Dhesi has since 2016 worked to deny what the people of Slough voted for – that we, our council and our local MP work together to maximise the benefits it could bring residents in the form of new, high skilled jobs with new high-tech global firms.

Lee Pettman - Chair, Slough Conservative Association

My letter to the Freeports Advisory Board can be found at the bottom of this page