Liverpool SEZ/Freeport signed off by Labour's Mayor Steve Rotheram is a mess of private equity buyouts and glossy brochure failures.

'Let Us Growth'

The Liverpool SEZ/Freeport that was signed off by Labour Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram is a mess of private equity buyouts and glossy brochure failures. A £20m buyout deal from US-based Elanco Animal Health has swooped in to buy US Pharmaceutical TriRx Speke manufacturing plant south Liverpool, which collapsed into administration in September 2024 TriRx was heralded as an auspicious boon to the Liverpool SEZ with promises of 4000 jobs, Elanco's buyout reduces that figure to 300 jobs.

TriRx is a crucial part of Elanco’s supply chain, supplying a number of farm animal product lines that generates more than £100m in revenues a year. TriRx was a key element of a plan to create a £320m life sciences Investment Zone. TriRx announced a £10m investment into the facility. Labour Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram was a board member of Rishi Sunak's deregulated SEZs and Freeports consortia, he said: “I strongly welcome Elanco’s decision to ensure the TriRx site remains open and that jobs are secured. See the problem there

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https://bionow.co.uk/news/b673dd53b06e6a/hundreds-of-jobs-saved-as-trirx-speke-bought-by-elanco-animal-health#:~:text=A%20£20m%20buyout%20deal,the%20plant%20in%20south%20Liverpool

These neoliberal free zones must be dismantled as they contravene EU laws and regulations on giving State Aid (public money) to companies of the previous Govt's choosing, as I said earlier Rotheram and Burnham were board members of Sunak's SEZs consortia

.We have to consider who is set to most gain from the Liverpool SEZ and Freeport, namely PEEL Group Ltd who are a notoriously monopolistic company with a controversial history.

John Whittaker (born 14 March 1942) is a British billionaire. He is chairman of the Peel Group, a property business that mainly invests in North West England. Although publicity-shy, he is one of the most influential business leaders for Greater Manchester and the North West and was named the most influential northerner by The Big Issue magazine in 2010.

Whittaker convinced the BBC to reject three sites across Manchester to move to MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. The presence of the BBC would then act as a magnet to attract indie production companies to Salford and the Peel Group would make money from the rent and lease agreements on the development.

In 2012 The World Heritage Committee decided to delete the property “Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City” from the World Heritage List, due to the irreversible loss of attributes conveying the outstanding universal value of the property

The World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies had previously recommended to the World Heritage Committee to express serious concerns about the proposed development of Liverpool Waters and the fact that Liverpool City Council is inclined to grant consent to the proposals submitted by Peel Holdings, in spite of the objections that have been expressed by English Heritage.

There is a great danger that PEEL Group Ltd will enjoy further excessive corporate influence over councils and public services boosted by SEZ status. This on top of having a track record of controversial issues, including environmental pollution, fracking collusions with the council, and the police to gather intelligence on anti-fracking protests, excessive influence on affairs and development in the Liverpool region, claiming Peel "blurred the boundaries between public and private interests”, tax evasion, illegally extracting peat from its land near Salford, greenhouse gas emissions, lack of environmental assessments. In 2014, Peel's Clydeport business pleaded guilty to health and safety breaches and was fined £650,000 following a triple fatality.

Peel have been described as one of the 'secretive' companies that "hoards England's land" and has made significant impacts, good and bad, on the environment and people's lives:

Peel Holdings operates behind the scenes, quietly acquiring land and real estate, cutting billion-pound deals and influencing numerous planning decisions. Its investment decisions have had an enormous impact, whether for good or ill, on the places where millions of people live and work.

So if PEEL Group’s atrocious track record of corporate crimes is anything to go by, imagine how much worse they will become inside a deregulated free zone.