People need to understand that infrastructure is the primary target of deregulated SEZs.

Warning. Special Economic Zones are stepping stones to charter cities.

People need to understand that infrastructure is the primary target of deregulated SEZs, this includes councils, their assets, and all public services therein. Woking County Council in Surrey is bankrupt. Surrey was approved as an SEZ in 2017, right after Brexit. Councillors racked up £2bn in debt that was spent on skyscrapers, a luxury hotel and other risky commercial investments. An accountancy firm named Grant Thornton named Woking's chief executive Ray Morgan the “driving force” behind Woking’s investments among a “close-knit group who were not exposed to challenge and new ideas”.

Morgan compared Woking to Singapore as the authority borrowed money to build a town-centre complex of shops and residential towers, which later turned out to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds less than the council paid for it. Woking Council's spending power was 146.4 times greater than Birmingham Council, which was issued with an S114 notice in 2023 which is technically bankruptcy.

‘Economic violence’: Birmingham residents decry plan to raze 1,900 homes

Birmingham is host to 6 deregulated SEZs. 6,000 people could have their homes torn down as part of a £2.2bn project in which 1,266 council houses and 567 properties belonging to private homeowners could be repossessed in a mass compulsory purchase order for the area. “I own the freehold. I’ve put everything in here, this was a lifelong home. I had no thoughts I would ever need to move and, if I did, it would be on my own terms,” he said. “It’s the real injustice of it all, and at the same time the council are being totally incompetent at meeting with us.”

What does this entail for Birmingham's residents?

Birmingham council was issued with an S114 notice which is technically bankruptcy. What happens next when SEZs are installed in entire city regions? Under the terms of a 'corporate political model', deregulated SEZs operate under 'localised freedoms' which are the primary focus in UK SEZs that the Tories, Labour and MSM refuse to reveal to the general public. What is typifies deregulation in SEZs? Workers rights are shredded, modern-day slavery is accelerated including child labour, feudalism takes hold, money laundering and on/offshoring wealth is commonplace in SEZs, council assets get stripped, and sold off to private equity, weapons, drugs, human trafficking are rife, sovereignty is sold to the highest bidder, public services are privatised, this includes libraries, education, emergency services, healthcare, housing, refuse collection, security, social care, tax collection, public parks.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/22/economic-violence-ladywood-birmingham-redevelopment-residents-clash-council

Compulsory Purchase Orders and SEZs are a venture capitalists dream come true. Freeports/free zones mean free public money on tap for those overseeing the deregulated zone. Know that State aid rules in the EU prohibits the use of public money for profit motives by unscrupulous corporations.

The Labour Govt published a 192-page document on Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) last October 2024, it was updated in January 2025. CPO's apply to business, agricultural, and residential properties. CPOs are grist for the mill in deregulated SEZs and Freeports. The next stage in expansionist free zones is corporate land and property grabs, which are stepping stones to charter cities.

SEZs are deregulated carve-outs with separate laws and regulations from the host country. Compulsory purchase orders apply to business, agricultural, and residential properties.

There are 5 deregulated SEZs currently being installed in Bristol. Growth Incentive Proposition, the headline proposition in the Bristol Deal, creates a genuine incentive for the city region to invest in economic growth and job creation. The West of England authorities will be allowed to keep 100% of the growth in business rates raised in the city region‟s network of Enterprise Areas, over a 25 year period. At the heart of Bristol and the West of England‟s strategy for growth is the network of six locations for enterprise and employment growth, including the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone and five Enterprise Areas

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a818d3fed915d74e33fed38/Bristol-and-West-of-England-City-Deal-FINAL.pdf

There are 16 SEZs being set up in Cornwall.

https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/23111964.16-potential-investment-zones-cornwall-revealed/

Each SEZ recieves £160 million in State aid (public money) and that goes to businesses setting up inside the zones, multiplied by 74 SEZs = £11 billion 840 million. Interesting that so many SEZs are clustered together in what was once a Tory stronghold of Cornwall given that each SEZ receives £160 million in State aid. Cornwall now has 4 Labour MPs and 2 Lib Dems.

BTW UK SEZs contravene EU laws and regulations on State aid, 'the EU Parliament stresses that State aid should support ecological transformation and foster the development of services, knowledge, and infrastructure rather than providing support to specific companies' Licenses for the zones are set at 25 years with tax breaks for 10 years. Labour backed this Tory initiative as board members of Sunak and Truss's SEZs/Freeports consortia. Companies are being trusted to 'self-regulate' in the zones, the whole thing stinks.

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN05942/SN05942.pdf

When councils go bankrupt, private equity pounces and then makes serious incursions into the public sector, it will move in for the kill and asset-strip councils, this is happening at 192 councils in England.

https://inyourarea.co.uk/news/full-list-of-councils-with-more-debt-than-bankrupt-birmingham

More English councils declared effective bankruptcy in the past three years than in the preceding three decades, amid a financial crisis triggered by austerity-driven cuts and local missteps. Yet again The Guardian makes no mention of the duopoly's gambit of installing corporate fiefdoms in 86 free zones across the UK.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/07/watchdog-to-investigate-two-former-figures-at-bankrupt-woking-council