New low-tax zone on the cards for West Midlands

Kwasi Kwarteng

The West Midlands could be announced as home to a new low-tax, low-regulation investment zone when Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announces his emergency Budget on Friday (September 23).

The 12 new zones would be areas in which planning rules would be relaxed and taxes cut, according to The Guardian, in a move which is expected to go further than Boris Johnson’s much-heralded freeports plan.

Other announcements on Friday could see the rise in national insurance contributions and corporation tax scrapped and green levies removed from fuel bills on a temporary basis.

The West Midlands, hames estuary, Tees Valley, West Yorkshire and Norfolk are among the locations where the new zones could be established. They would include a mixture of commercial and residential property and could see both business and personal taxes lowered if they base themselves there.

The entire package is expected to cost the Treasury around £30bn a year.

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