Securing jobs, celebrating heritage and unlocking investment
Anglesey Freeport presents a once in a generation opportunity to enhance the North Wales economy, providing high skilled, high wage jobs to our local workforce. The opportunities which the Freeport will create will be central to ensuring the long-term prosperity of communities across Anglesey and help protect the local area’s proud identity and heritage acting as a magnet to keep local talent to North Wales.
Job Creation
A core aim of Anglesey Freeport is to create the best possible economic conditions to allow businesses to thrive – creating new job opportunities for our communities. Through taxation and customs facilitations, businesses have a greater ability to not only provide higher wage opportunities, but also a greater ability to invest in their operations – allowing them to grow, develop, and innovate.
Regeneration
The Freeport will mean the redevelopment of sites, including brownfield sites that have been vacant for decades, such as Prosperity Parc – the old Anglesey Aluminium site – as well land near Rhosgoch and Parc Cybi. Old and unused buildings will make way for new infrastructure, signalling the start of a new and exciting chapter in the lifetime of these sites.
Identity
Central to the Freeport’s overall mission is the enhancement and protection of Anglesey’s proud culture, identity and the Welsh language. Communities have suffered as industry and enterprise has moved off the Island, yet the Freeport’s aim of attracting new businesses will look to reverse this damaging trend.
Opening opportunities for trade
Anglesey Freeport will operate as a hub for global trade. The Freeport is pioneering the latest advances in smart technologies to implement a new Digital Trade Corridor (DTC) which aims to provide frictionless trade through Holyhead Port, and reduce the complexities and bureaucratic processes which have hampered global supply chains over recent years.
Revitalising the GB-Landbridge
The Port of Holyhead has suffered a 20% reduction in the volume of commercial traffic since the UK left the EU. Hauliers moving goods from the island of Ireland to mainland Europe have been forced to divert their goods around the southern tip of the UK in order to ensure goods do not enter the UK domestic market. Anglesey Freeport will look to revitalise the GB Landbridge, ensuring goods can pass through the Freeport and to mainland Europe, benefiting from customs duty relief.
Innovation
Anglesey Freeport is well placed to become a testbed for new technologies and a powerhouse of innovation. M-SParc – Wales’ first science park – is already a sector leader in innovation and R&D, the wider campus is set to become one of the designated tax sites within the Freeport. The site currently hosts over 40 organisations and is well placed to benefit from further investor interest as part of the Central Anglesey Tax Site.
In addition, the Freeport’s Blue Innovation Zone – off the coast of Holyhead Bay – will serve as a testbed for the technologies developed within the Freeport. We are committed to working with our key stakeholders to deliver innovation. This includes regional institutions such as Bangor University and Grŵp Llandrillo Menai, to national bodies and organisations including the Welsh Government and InnovateUK.
Supporting Energy Island: Anglesey Freeport plays a crucial role in incentivising businesses to invest in the region and continue its development as a low carbon energy powerhouse. The Energy Island Programme, backed by the flexibilities offered by Anglesey Freeport, presents an excellent opportunity for the development and generation of new energy technologies, ranging from Small Modular Reactors, to tidal and wind.
Reduce Outward Migration
Reduce the outward migration and retain Welsh speakers: Anglesey struggles with the outmigration of young people, and working age families, who leave the Island for work. The median age in Anglesey increased from 45 to 48 years between the 2011 and the 2021 Census, much higher than the average in Wales (42 in 2021). This results in fewer people who can speak Welsh: between 2011 and 2021, there were just under 1,200 fewer Welshspeaking residents on the Isle of Anglesey (over the age of three years). The opportunities delivered by Anglesey Freeport can make a real difference in reversing this trend.
Skills and training
Anglesey Freeport will have a clear focus on training and upskilling local talent to benefit from the new employment opportunities offered by the Freeport. We have developed a Skills Plan which sets out how we will work with the Regional Skills Partnership and other key stakeholders including Bangor University, M-SParc and Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.
Energy Island Programme
- The Anglesey Energy Island Programme, spearheaded by Isle of Anglesey County Council, is a collaborative initiative involving various stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors, working in partnership to establish Anglesey as a leader in low carbon energy generation, research and development. The island boasts some of the world's most cutting-edge advances in sustainable technology and energy production.
- Anglesey Freeport plays a crucial role in incentivising businesses to invest in the region and continue its development as a sustainable energy powerhouse. The Energy Island vision, backed by the streamlined processes and financial flexibilities offered by Anglesey Freeport, presents an excellent opportunity for companies seeking to develop, manufacture and build the next generation of energy technologies.
- At present, the Energy Island Programme is helping to spearhead some of the region’s latest advances in sustainable innovation, including but not limited to the following projects:
The Morlais Project
The Morlais Project is the largest consented tidal energy project in the world. The opportunities for developing new sustainable technologies are significant in this area – lying off the west coast of Anglesey within the Freeport’s boundary. The Morlais project will include trials and pilots for tidal energy as well as offshore wind in the Freeport’s Blue Innovation Zone within Holyhead Bay. It gives the UK the chance to capture part of the global tidal energy supply chain in a way that exceeds what has already been achieved in wind power, and is a significant part of bolstering Anglesey’s role as the UK’s leading region for the creation of low carbon energy.
M-SParc Science Park
