Portsmouth’s new Brexit border post could be demolished – without ever being used
A new £24m border control post may have to be demolished because repeated changes to post-Brexit border arrangements have left it commercially unviable.
The facility at Portsmouth International Port is due to begin physical checks on food and plant imports from the EU at the end of next month, but changes to border protocols since it was built mean half of the building will never be used.
Built with a £17m central government grant and £7m from Portsmouth City Council, which owns the port, it is designed to carry out checks on up to 80 truck loads of produce a day. The port now expects to process only four or five daily.
As a consequence, half of the 14 loading bays will never be used, and annual running costs of £800,000 a year will not be covered by the fees charged to importers for carrying out checks.
Portsmouth is not alone, with ports across the country puzzling over how to make the over-sized, over-specified buildings commissioned by the government pay for themselves with far less traffic.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it spent £200m part-funding new facilities to cope with post-Brexit border controls at 41 ports. It acknowledges that fewer checks will now be required and says ports are free to use spare capacity as they wish.
The problem in Portsmouth is that the facility, built for a very specific purpose inside a secure area, has no obvious commercial use, so the port is considering building a new, smaller facility, and decommissioning or even demolishing the existing building to make space for a commercially viable project.
The new border control post in Portsmouth
“This was built to a Defra [Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] specification when the border operating model was announced and it’s been mothballed for two years while the checks were delayed,” Mike Sellers, director of Portsmouth International Port and chairman of the British Ports Association, told Sky News.
“Now the border will be operating with far fewer checks, we are going to struggle to cover the running costs of around £800,000 a year.
“So we have to look to the future and work out what strategically is the best way to minimise the impact to the port and to the council.
“I know it sounds ironic, but that could be building another border control post much smaller than this facility, and looking to find commercial ways to get income either through this facility or to demolish it and use the operational land for something else.”
‘Total and absolute mess’
Port owner Portsmouth City Council meanwhile wants its £7m share of the £24m build cost reimbursed by the government.
“We as a council had to find £7m to help build this facility and now we’re on the fifth change of mind about how much inspection there will be. Half of this building is going to be left empty, idle, unused, and yet it’s costing council taxpayers of Portsmouth a great deal of money,” said councillor Gerald Vernon-Jones, transport lead for the council.
Were the Portsmouth facility to close it could impact the security of UK food imports, as the port is the main alternative route to Dover, providing much-needed resilience to a supply chain heavily reliant on the Short Straits route.
“It’s a total and absolute mess, we have an enormous white elephant here,” Mr Vernon-Jones said.
“If we can’t afford to keep port health people here all day, every day, to do those examinations then everything will have to come through Dover, and that’s enormously risky for this country. If Dover is closed for some reason, industrial action or whatever, then the whole country’s food is at ransom.”
Portsmouth is the UK’s second busiest cross-Channel port
The British Ports Association meanwhile has raised concerns with ministers about the preparedness of the new inspection regime at new border control posts (BCPs), due to be enforced in less than six weeks.
The trade body says ports have still not been told what hours BCPs will be required to open, or how many staff from two state inspection agencies will be required on site.
Crucially, they also do not know how much they will be able to charge importers for inspections because the government has not revealed what price it will levy at the wholly state-owned and run BCP at Sevington in Kent, 20 miles inland from Dover.
Given the dominance of Dover in UK food imports, the so-called common user charge will set the price for the rest of the market, but other ports still have no idea where to set fees.
Defra says it will inform the industry shortly of the fees it has determined following consultation.
The fate of the Portsmouth facility, obsolete before it has even opened, symbolises the delay and indecision around import controls since the Brexit deal came into force in January 2021.
While UK exports to the EU have faced border and customs controls since 1 January 2021, the UK government has delayed similar checks on EU imports five times and changed the control regime.
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The original July 2021 deadline for physical checks of plant and animal produce was postponed because the BCPs were not ready, and further delays followed, with the government citing the impact on the food supply chain and the cost of living crisis.
In April 2022 the government announced a wholesale revision of its plans for the border, introducing a new risk-based approach that limits checks to certain high and medium-risk food and plant categories.
This was then delayed again, with a staged introduction finally beginning in January, with medium-risk food and plant imports requiring health certificates signed off by vets or plant health inspectors, followed by physical checks from 30 April.
Even with reduced checks on importsm the government’s own analysis suggests border controls will add £330m a year to the cost of trading with the continent and increase food inflation.
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Our border control posts have sufficient capacity and capability, including for temperature controlled consignments, to handle the volume and type of expected checks and the authorities will be working to minimise disruption as these checks are introduced.”
Retail sales rose a surprising amount in July, as good weather and the Women’s Euros led people to part with their cash, official figures show.
The amount of spending rose 0.6% in July, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), far above the 0.2% rise anticipated by economists polled by Reuters.
In particular, clothing and footwear stores, as well as online shopping, experienced strong growth.
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When looked at on a three-month basis, the numbers are weaker, with a 0.6% fall in sales up to July due in part to downward revisions in June.
Spending has declined since March, when supermarkets, sports shops, and household goods saw strong sales at the beginning of the year as warm and sunny weather pushed summer purchases earlier. Though compared to a year ago, sales are up 1.1%.
Fans gather during a Homecoming Victory Parade in London after England’s win in the final of the Women’s Euros. Pic: PA
Retail sales figures are significant as they measure household consumption, the largest expenditure in the UK economy.
Growing retail sales can mean economic growth, which the government has repeatedly said is its top priority.
A problem with the figures
These figures were originally due to be published in August but were delayed by two weeks so the ONS could carry out “quality assurance” checks.
Following the checks, the statistics body found a “problem”, which meant it had to correct seasonally adjusted figures.
It hasn’t been the only question mark over the reliability of ONS figures.
In March, UK trade figures were delayed due to errors from 2023, and the office continues to advise caution in interpreting changes in the monthly unemployment rate due to concerns over data reliability.
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UK growth slowed amid rising costs in June.
As a result of the latest error, previously monthly figures overstated the monthly volatility in the first five months of 2025, the ONS’s director general of economic statistics, James Benford, said.
Mr Benford apologised for the release delay and for the errors.
What could it mean?
It could mean retrospective changes to the UK economic growth rate, according to Rob Wood, the chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
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April’s economic growth rate will be revised down, and May’s will be moved up as a result, Mr Wood said.
There will be no impact on the Bank of England’s interest rate decision, he added.
A greater proportion of electric cars were sold last month than at any point this year, industry data shows.
More than a quarter (26.5%) of cars sold in August were electric vehicles (EVs), according to figures from motor lobby group the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
It’s the largest amount of sales since December 2024 and comes as the government introduced financial incentives to help drivers make the move to zero tailpipe emission cars.
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The full suite of grants were not available during the month, however, with a further 35 models eligible for £1,500 off early in September.
Throughout August more models became eligible for price reductions, meaning more consumers could be tempted to purchase an EV in September.
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New EV grants to drive sales came into effect in July
The increased percentage of EV sales came despite an overall 2% drop in buying, compared to a year earlier, in what is typically the quietest month for car purchases.
What are the rules?
The numbers suggest the car industry could be on course to meet the government’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, the thinktank Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has said.
It stipulates that new petrol and diesel cars may not be sold from 2030.
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Amid pressure from industry, the government altered the mandate in April to allow for hybrid vehicles, which are powered by both fuel and a battery, to be sold until 2035.
Sales of new petrol and diesel vans are also permitted until 2035.
Until then, 28% of cars sold must be electric this year, with the share rising to 33% in 2026, 38% in 2027 and 66% in 2029, the final year before the new combustion engine ban.
Manufacturers face fines for not meeting the targets.
Last year, the objective of making 22% of all car sales purely EVs was surpassed, with EVs comprising 24.3% of the total sold in 2024.
Why?
The increased portion of EV sales can be attributed to increased model choice and discounting, on top of the government reductions, the SMMT said.
Savings from running an electric car are also enticing motorists, the ECIU said. “Demand for used EVs is already surging because they can offer £1,600 a year in savings in owning and running costs.”
“This matters for regular families as the pipeline of second-hand EVs is dependent on new car sales, which hit the used market after around three to four years.
Businesses have cut jobs at the fastest pace in almost four years, according to a closely-watched Bank of England survey which also paints a worrying picture for employment and wage growth ahead.
Its Decision Maker Panel (DMP) data, taken from chief financial officers across 2,000 companies, showed employment levels over the three months to August were 0.5% lower than in the same period a year earlier.
It amounted to the worst decline since autumn 2021 as firms grappled with the implementation of budget measures in the spring that raised their national insurance contributions and minimum wage levels, along with business rates for many.
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The start of April also witnessed the escalation in Donald Trump’s global trade war which further damaged sentiment, especially among exporters to the United States.
The survey showed no improvement in hiring intentions in the tough economy, with companies expecting to reduce employment levels by 0.5% over the coming year.
That was the weakest outlook projection since October 2020.
At the same time, the panel also showed that participants planned to raise their own prices by 3.8% over the next 12 months. That is in line with the current rate of inflation.
The news on wages was no better as the central forecast was for an average rise of 3.6% – down from the 4.6% seen over the past 12 months.
If borne out, it would mean private sector wages rising below the rate of inflation – erasing household and business spending power.
The Bank of England has been relying on data such as the DMP amid a lack of confidence in official employment figures produced by the Office for National Statistics due to low response rates.
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Bank governor Andrew Bailey told a committee of MPs on Wednesday that he was now less sure over the pace of interest rate cuts ahead owing to stubborn inflation in the economy.
The consumer prices index measure is expected to peak at 4% next month – double the Bank’s target rate – from the current level.
Higher interest rates only add to company costs and make them less likely to borrow for investment purposes.
At the same time, employers are fearful that the coming budget, set for late November, may contain no relief.
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Why aren’t we hearing about the budget ‘black hole’?
Sky News revealed on Thursday how the head of the banking sector’s main lobby group had written to the chancellor to warn that any additional levy on bank profits, as suggested by a think-tank last week, would only damage her search for growth.
Rachel Reeves is believed to be facing a black hole in the public finances amounting to £20bn-£40bn.
Tax rises are believed to be inevitable, given her commitment to fiscal rules concerning borrowing by the end of the parliament.
Heightened costs associated with servicing such debts following recent bond sell-offs across Western economies have made more borrowing even less palatable.
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Why did UK debt just get more expensive?
Ms Reeves is expected to raise some form of wealth tax, while other speculation has included a shake-up of council tax.
She has consistently committed not to target working people but the Bank of England data, and official ONS figures, would suggest that businesses have responded to 2024 budget measures by cutting jobs since April, with hospitality and retail among the worst hit.
Commenting on the data, Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “The DMP survey shows stubborn wage and price pressures despite falling employment, continuing to suggest that structural economic changes and supply weakness are keeping inflation high.
“The MPC [monetary policy committee of the Bank of England] will have to be cautious, so we remain comfortable assuming no more rate cuts this year.”
“That said, the increasing signs of labour market weakness suggest dovish risks,” he concluded.
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