The Dubai-owned company, which admitted it breached employment law by sacking 800 British staff at P&O Ferries last March and replacing them with cheap foreign labour, took a multimillion-pound windfall under the Rishi Sunak Freeports scheme, in what unions condemned as a “decision” shocking.
DP World, the ports and shipping empire controlled by the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, has won approval for its business plan to manage its 1,700-acre Thames Freeport project in Essex, giving the company the right to benefit from taxpayers’ money and tax breaks, for just one year. . After the mass dismissals.
The company, run by Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, sacked staff via video call and hired foreign seamen who were sometimes paid as little as £4 an hour, according to the Trades Union Congress. The government, at the time, said it was “appalling”.
Sunak made free reporting a central part of his vision of reinventing the British economy after Brexit when he was chancellor. Under the scheme, which he launched in 2021, eight sites will be converted into low-tax zones, with manufacturers based there importing goods duty-free. Companies will also be able to claim lower property taxes on new buildings and take advantage of lower levels of National Insurance on new employees.
Thames Freeport will be operated across three sites in Essex and East London in partnership between DP World, Forth Ports and Ford. It is made up of DP World’s vast London Gateway site in Thurrock, which is the size of 400 football fields, Port Tilbury near Southend-on-Sea owned by Fourth Ports, and Ford’s Dagenham factory.
Last week, the government agreed to a final feasibility study for the project, allowing it to formally form its board of directors and start working fully. This will qualify the port to receive £25m of government funding and allow the port to go ahead with attracting £4.6bn in public and private investment to generate 21,000 new jobs.
Paul Nowak, Secretary General of the TUC, said: “This is an appalling decision. DP World oversaw the brutal and illegal expulsion of 800 P&O ferry workers. Ministers should have stripped the company of all its public contracts and cut commercial ties. But the government chose instead to reward DP World has another bumper deal. This gives the green light to other rogue employers to act with impunity.”
Last summer, when asked if it would give its approval for the Times Freeport project, the government seemed to indicate that it was considering carefully whether to reject the plans. A spokesperson told The Times: “The government has been clear that we are appalled by the way P&O has behaved towards its staff and DfT ministers have raised this directly with the P&O bosses.
We have not yet approved the full feasibility study for Thames Freeport, and are working to determine whether DP World is in violation of any of the requirements. They have not received any capital funding from the government.”
Last week it emerged that directors and principals shared more than £15m, including bonuses, in 2022 from £14.6m in 2021.
HM Revenue & Customs also accused the company of avoiding stamp duty on its original £113m purchase of the London Gateway site in 2010, even though it “strongly opposes” the application and will fight the application in court.
A Thames Freeport spokesperson said the three participants in the scheme have invested £2.5bn in ports and logistics infrastructure over the past 10 years, with an additional £3bn worth of investment planned including a new £350m dock at DP World port at London Gateway. He added that the project will create 21,000 “direct and indirect job opportunities.”
A government spokesperson said: “This approval means Free Port will now receive up to £25m from the government and possibly hundreds of millions from locally held commercial rates. This funding will go to local authorities in the Freeport district and be used for the benefit of the whole district.”