What do UK Free Zones, Public Services and Corporate Creep Have in Common?

Local councils, already on their knees from austerity, are forced to sell public land at fire-sale prices.

The National Health Service (NHS), a cornerstone of British society since 1948, is facing an unprecedented assault, not from natural decline, but from a calculated, decades-long campaign to privatise it for corporate gain. As of May 2025, the NHS is buckling under 7.6 million patients on waiting lists, a 30% reduction in A&E departments since 2013, and 112,000 staff vacancies. These aren’t accidents; they’re the result of a bipartisan agenda that diverts billions into deregulated free zones while handing NHS contracts to private firms. This isn’t just privatisation—it’s a stealth takeover by corporations and politicians working together to asset-strip councils, erode public services, and transform the UK into a patchwork of corporate fiefdoms where collective sovereignty is replaced by corporate rule. If unchecked, this could dismantle the NHS by 2030, or sooner under a Reform UK government.

Free Zones: A Corporate Land Grab Masquerading as Progress

The UK’s 86 free zones—12 Freeports and 74 Special Economic Zones (SEZs)—are sold as engines of economic growth, but they’re a Trojan horse for corporate dominance. These zones, spanning regions up to 75 km in diameter, have cost taxpayers £19.78 billion by 2024, with plans to spend £64 billion by 2048. Yet, they’ve delivered just 22,067 new jobs at a staggering £896,246 each, with 66%–96% of promised jobs merely displaced from elsewhere, according to a May 2025 report. In Teesside Freeport, £560 million of public money has been spent, but 90% of profits have gone to private firms like BlackRock, which holds an 80% stake in three major Freeports: Harwich, Thamesport, and Felixstowe.

These zones operate under “localised freedoms,” slashing labour protections, environmental regulations, and taxes to attract investment. Local councils, already on their knees from austerity, are forced to sell public land at fire-sale prices.

In Birmingham, where six SEZs operate, councils sold off green spaces to fund operations, leaving schools without sports fields while refuse workers strike over £8,000 pay cuts, leading to rat infestations amid uncollected rubbish, added to which 6000 Birmingham tenants could lose their homes due to a Mass Compulsory Purchase Order. This isn’t regeneration—it’s asset-stripping, with public resources redirected to corporate profit while communities suffer.

The architects of this scheme aren’t local leaders but a global network of libertarian ideologues. Shanker Singham, a Brexit strategist, has been a key player, lobbying Tory ministers like Jacob Rees-Mogg to expand free zones through his consultancy, Competere. His vision, inspired by projects like Próspera in Honduras—a charter city backed by Peter Thiel’s Pronomos Capital—envisions zones where corporations set their own rules, from policing to utilities. Próspera’s residents must sign “agreements of coexistence” to live under corporate laws, a model Singham has pushed for the UK, as seen in his 2022 five-point plan to Rees-Mogg, which called for unrestricted freeport growth and regulatory relaxations.

NHS Privatisation: A Parallel Assault Fueled by Free Zone Funds

While free zones drain public funds, the NHS is being hollowed out through outsourcing and policy shifts that prioritise private profit. In 2025, the NHS spent £12 billion on private outsourcing, a 140% increase since 2015, with US firms like Palantir and Optum (a UnitedHealth subsidiary) securing lucrative data and care contracts. Palantir’s involvement, backed by Thiel’s anti-democratic ideology—he once said, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible”—raises alarms about patient privacy and profiteering. Meanwhile, Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), which replaced earlier US-inspired models, have accelerated this trend by fragmenting the NHS into regional boards that outsource services to private providers.

Labour’s Wes Streeting has deepened this crisis. His reforms, including workforce cuts and tighter Department of Health control, align with a broader privatisation agenda. Streeting’s ties to private health interests—highlighted by £175,000 in donations from firms like MPM Connect, a company with opaque operations owned by Labour donor Peter Hearn—mirror a wider trend: 67 MPs across parties have taken private health-linked donations since 2019, per EveryDoctor’s 2025 report. This political-corporate nexus ensures the NHS is starved of funds while free zones flourish, diverting resources that could hire 40,000 nurses or 10,000 doctors to fill current vacancies.

Corporate Sovereignty: The Endgame of a Bipartisan Betrayal

The connection between free zones and NHS privatisation isn’t coincidental—it’s a coordinated strategy to shift the UK toward corporate sovereignty. Free zones are testing grounds for corporate-led governance, where companies like BlackRock and Palantir can operate with minimal oversight. In Liverpool Freeport, AI-driven logistics and predictive policing are being trialled, echoing dystopian models like Trump’s proposed “freedom zone” in Gaza, which envisions a luxury hub managed by facial recognition and private security, displacing 2.3 million Palestinians. The UK’s zones could follow suit, absorbing NHS facilities into deregulated enclaves where private firms manage healthcare, doubling outsourcing costs to £24 billion by 2030.

Labour’s complicity is glaring. Angela Rayner, as Deputy Prime Minister, delayed security audits at Teesside Freeport despite evidence of criminal links, including NE Security Ltd’s ties to a cocaine-running group, as exposed by Private Eye. Metro Mayors like Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham have collaborated with Tories to implement these zones, while Keir Starmer’s tech obsession—promising partnerships with Google and Microsoft, handing public data to Silicon Valley, mirroring Gaza’s AI-driven control systems. This bipartisan betrayal, rooted in libertarian ideas from thinkers like Friedrich Hayek and Patri Friedman, prioritises corporate profit over democratic accountability.

A Farage-Led Future: From 10 Years to 2–3

Current trends suggest the NHS could collapse as a public entity by 2035, with waiting lists projected to hit 12 million, half of A&E departments closed, and a 200,000-person staff shortfall. But a Reform UK victory in the next election could accelerate this to 2–3 years. Nigel Farage’s party, polling at 25% in early 2025, operates as a private company under his control, designed to run the UK like a business. Farage’s vision of an insurance-based healthcare system, backed by his ties to Trump, who supports similar “Freedom Cities” in the US, would see US firms flood free zones, selling off NHS infrastructure to the highest bidder. Under this scenario, the UK could become a “Sovereign Corporation,” with Farage as CEO, and free zones as feudal enclaves governed by corporate boards, not elected officials.

Resist or Lose It All

The British public opposes this agenda—78% reject further NHS privatisation, per a 2024 YouGov survey. Yet, both Labour and Tories, alongside Reform UK, are pushing it forward, using free zones as a backdoor to dismantle public services. We must act: demand transparency on MP donations, support campaigns like Keep Our NHS Public, and resist free zone expansion through protests and legal challenges. The £64 billion earmarked for these zones by 2048 could rebuild the NHS, not enrich BlackRock. If we don’t fight back, the NHS—and our democracy—will be lost to corporate rule by 2030, or sooner under Farage. The choice is ours: reclaim our public treasures, or watch them be carved up by those who see us as mere consumers in their corporate dystopia.