Whirling Hall of Knives 2024 – 64 x 47 x 12cm, sheet plastic, canvas, photographs, wire, acrylic paint, letraset
The UK Govt’s website lists all the SEZs and Freeports currently being set up, it also includes notes on why these zones failed under Thatcher, it was essentially due to the UK being in the EU and coming up against the EU’s laws and regulations on State aid that prevents companies from making profits without contributing anything back to local infrastructure, this is why SEZs are regulated in the EU. There is no evidence that deregulated SEZs and Freeports improve the economy, in fact it costs more money to maintain them in the long term which again means taxpayers foot the bill for this and the inevitable clean-up costs, once companies have made their profits and moved on. Job displacement is a common feature of SEZs, where people will leave one run-down area seeking jobs in the zones, causing those regions to fall into further ruin.