No Green Freeport for Orkney – but bid could pave the way to better things for Orkney

Orkney Islands Council has expressed its disappointment at not being named as one of Scotland’s two future Green Freeports – but says it will work to extract as much benefit as possible from the increased awareness brought about by the bidding process.

Leader of Orkney Islands Council, James Stockan, said: “It is disappointing but not altogether surprising that UK and Scottish Governments have decided not to locate a Green Freeport in Orkney, given the way the bid process was structured, with scoring heavily weighted to the number of jobs that would be supported. Competing on a largely numbers basis was always going to be a challenge for a small place like Orkney.

“However, our bid did present a unique and compelling vision of a green innovation zone for Orkney, driving forward the low carbon agenda for Scotland and the UK, reimagining the traditional role of Freeports as simply hubs for large volumes of import/export. So we are hopeful our bid will pave the way to something more fitting for our community.

“Without a doubt our involvement in the bid process has raised the profile and awareness of Orkney’s potential, and opened up a route for us to lobby for an alternative investment in the county including benefits for renewables firms.

“We’ll continue to press the case for investment in Orkney which is based on quality and innovation, rather than quantity of jobs – because we think Orkney is absolutely vital in our journey as a nation to net zero.”

The UK Government announced as part of its 2021 budget that eight Freeports would be created in England.

In response, the Scottish Government announced that they would begin a process to award more than one Green Freeport in Scotland. These would be based on the Freeport model but with emphasis on innovation, renewable energy, job creation and higher wages. The process in Scotland stalled for a time whilst negotiations went on between the two governments on this emphasis in Scotland.

However on 14 February 2022, the Scottish Government announced an agreement with the UK Government to deliver two Green Freeports in Scotland, with the aims of building globally competitive industrial clusters, delivering a transition to net-zero and creating new high-quality employment opportunities including payment of the real living wage.

Orkney had registered an expression of interest in 2021 along with eight other locations on the publication of the draft prospectus (Shetland, Cromarty Firth, Aberdeen and Peterhead, Montrose, Dundee, Firth of Forth, Glasgow City Region, Cairnryan.)

Five bids were submitted by the deadline of June 2022 - Clyde Green Freeport, Aberdeen City and Peterhead Green Freeport, Opportunity Inverness and Cromarty Firth, Firth of Forth Green Freeport and Orkney Green Freeport.

Cromarty Firth and Firth of Forth have been named as the successful bids.