UK port operators to seek compensation if post-Brexit trade barriers are lowered | Brexit

British port operators have reportedly said they should be compensated by the government if it negotiates a deal to cut trade barriers with the EU, after being forced to invest millions in building post-Brexit border control facilities under the Conservatives.

The British Ports Association (BPA) has reportedly written to the Cabinet Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to warn of huge losses after operators built sophisticated checkpoints to enforce strict controls on animal and plant imports.

“Ports should not have to bear recurring costs due to policy changes,” the BPA said in a letter seen by the Financial Times. “We are keen to discuss how the sector could be reasonably compensated.”

Labour has pledged to strike a veterinary deal with the EU to prevent “unnecessary border checks” and limit food price increases resulting from higher costs for importers, as part of plans to overhaul post-Brexit trade barriers.

The letter, sent after Labour’s landslide election victory, details how port owners have built “a series of expensive and highly specialised border control posts, under the direction of the government”.

The former government previously said it had spent £200m to co-fund facilities to manage checks at 41 ports after the UK leaves the European Union.

Port operators have spoken of the significant cost they have incurred in building these new, little-used facilities. Even before Labour announced it would ease trade barriers, the scope of post-Brexit import controls had been reduced from what was originally planned, meaning much of what was built was unnecessary.

Earlier this year, Portsmouth City Council’s cabinet member for transport, Gerald Vernon-Jackson, described the £23m, 8,000 sq m facility, at the UK’s second busiest cross-Channel terminal, as a “monumental white elephant”.

“It was built to handle 50 to 80 vehicles a day; we now expect to handle only half a dozen when it opens,” said Mike Sellers, the port’s director.

The facility is one of more than 100 registered border control posts (BCPs) that will be used to check food and plant products from the EU when post-Brexit import rules come into force from 30 April.

However, half of the site was left empty and unused and the council has claimed £6 million of the construction costs from the government. Unlike the majority of the country’s ports, which are privately owned, Portsmouth is owned by the city council, meaning the authority pays for the associated costs.

In anticipation of post-Brexit controls, 40 ports, including Portsmouth, applied in 2020 for the government’s £200m Port Infrastructure Fund to build new or upgrade existing infrastructure. The new ports being built include three at Hull, Immingham and Killingholme on the Humber, at a cost of £70m, and another at Purfleet in Essex, at a cost of £15m.

But port owners have argued the fund is not big enough and they should cover the difference. Their trade association, the UK Major Ports Group, has calculated that they have paid £100m to plug the funding gap.