§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has had from the Manchester chamber of commerce and industry about the list of experimental freeports; what reply he is sending; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe chief executive of the Manchester chamber of commerce and industry has written to me commenting on the exclusion of Manchester airport from the list of experimental freeports.
545WAs I indicated in the House on 2 February at c. 411, I regret that I am unable, for reasons of commercial confidentiality, to explain why some applications were successful and others were not. In view of the limited nature of the proposed experiment, it was necessary to restrict the number of sites chosen. This inevitably meant that several attractive applications had to be turned down. Although I recognise that many will have been disappointed by the decision, the Government believe that the characteristics of the locations chosen should allow the freeport concept to be properly tested in practice.
I have replied along these lines to the Manchester chamber of commerce and industry.