Plymouth’s tax-break freeport business plan has been approved by the Government and is set to bring millions of pounds of investment and thousands of jobs to the city. The Plymouth and South Devon Freeport’s Full Business Case is among the first three given the all clear by ministers.
The approval is expected to unlock millions of pounds of grant seed funding and enable applicable businesses to join and take advantage of the freeport status. It will bring in £25m from Whitehall for “essential infrastructure” and £29m from local authority sources.
The freeport is also designed to:
- Enable new employment land to be bought forward at the three sites of South Yard, Langage and Sherford.
- Accelerate the formation of advanced manufacturing clusters in marine, defence and space sectors with low carbon applications at the forefront.
- Leverage £250m private sector investment.
- Support a new £30m Innovation Centre at Oceansgate.
- Provide a major expansion plan for Princess Yachts.
- Deliver more than 3,500 jobs.