Councils have a 'responsibility' to make freeports work, says top official

And he believes local council involvement in such proposals - when went to the UK and Scottish Government last month - will help to reassure the public about their integrity.

Britain’s freeports were very much the brainchild of Boris Johnson’s Conservatives. The SNP initially appeared reluctant to get involved but has now backed the schemes along as they are “green”, in other words have an emphasis on low-carbon technologies.

Businesses in these zones will benefit from local and national tax breaks, including on import tariffs and employer contributions to national insurance.

Partnerships - usually alliances of local authorities and infrastructure owners - have already made their bids.

Winners will be announced in the summer with two successful freeports scheduled to be up and running next year.

“Parts of the city region and North Lanarkshire certainly are still blighted by poverty and deprivation,’ Murray said. “Covid, if anything, compounded those impacts. So we have an ongoing responsibility to look at any new opportunity that arises that can help deal with some of those issues.”

“Green freeports are one of those opportunities.”

Murray believes local authority leadership in freeport structures should help put the public at ease over the schemes.

“There are lots of strengths in the model of a freeport. It has to prove itself,” he said.

“There are risks to it, I get that. In the private-public partnership that will have to be formed for the bid - and beyond that - there will be a governance arrangement. This, hopefully, if designed properly, will bring the best of both worlds together. To make sure that the checks and balances are there.”

“Having us in there, on that governance board, brings that part to the table as well, to give people confidence that these freeports are genuinely about bettering things.”

The five confirmed bidders include Clyde Green Freeport, promoted by Peel Ports, which takes in Glasgow airport and the Mossend Railhead in North Lanarkshire.

While on the east coast, 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.

After initially touting a bid, the Cairnryan Green Freeport plan was withdrawn.

The Scottish scheme is being backed by £52million from the Treasury.

The SNP initially refused to work with London on freeports, which they said had been “tarnished” by association with smuggling, tax dodging, and bad pay and work conditions.

After the UK pushed ahead with eight freeports in England one in Wales, the Scottish Government relented in return for the sites being“green freeports” north of the border.

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.

But the Scottish Greens remain resolutely opposed to freeports.

“They attract secretive and opaque corporate structures and have been extensively linked to money-laundering, including in high-level European Union report,” said the party’s Ross Greer MSP.

The Scottish Government insisted it will stay on top of who ultimately owns and controls freeports.

A spokeswoman said: “Green Freeport governance bodies will be required to maintain records of all businesses operating or applying to operate within the tax sites, to undertake reasonable efforts to identify their beneficial owners, and to make that information available to all relevant authorities.”

She added: “Broader issues of ownership and transparency will be discussed with the UK Government in the context of our joint approach to delivering the programme in Scotland.”