Thread by @EuropeanPowell

What You Can Do About UK Enterprise Zones

🧵 The UK’s enterprise zone network is expanding under Labour’s Industrial Strategy Zones. Here are concrete actions you can take to resist the corporate carve-up of Britain:

1/ **DEMAND TRANSPARENCY**
Ask your MP and local council: Which companies benefit from zone subsidies? What taxes do they avoid? What environmental damage do they cause? What IP are they acquiring? They’re using public money—you have a right to know.
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2/ **CHALLENGE DEMOCRATIC DEFICITS** Enterprise zones bypass normal democratic oversight. Demand that all zones require local council approval, genuine public consultation with veto power, and annual performance reviews with revocation powers.

3/ **ATTACH CONDITIONS TO PUBLIC MONEY** No more corporate welfare without strings. Push for: living wage guarantees, union recognition, profit-sharing with communities, local hiring quotas, environmental compliance, and IP sharing requirements.

4/ **SUPPORT ALTERNATIVES** Back community-owned food processing, publicly-run research facilities, municipal data centres, and cooperative enterprise zones governed by workers and communities. Prove democratic ownership works better.

5/ **ORGANIZE LOCALLY** Build coalitions between affected groups: farmers losing abattoirs, students in commercialized universities, zone workers, residents facing compulsory purchase. You’re not alone—this affects every region.

6/ **UNIONIZE ZONE WORKERS** If you work in an enterprise zone, join or form a union. Collective organizing is the most powerful tool to resist exploitation and demand fair wages, secure contracts, and workplace democracy. @The_TUC @RMTunion

7/ **LEGAL CHALLENGES** Challenge Mayoral Development Orders, compulsory purchase orders, 25-year licenses, and “regulatory sandboxes” that suspend protections. These zones depend on legal frameworks that can be contested.

8/ **MAKE IT AN ELECTORAL ISSUE** Demand candidates commit to zone reform or abolition. Make enterprise zone accountability a voting issue in local and national elections. Politicians respond to electoral pressure. @TheGreenParty @ZackPolanski @thisisyourparty @zarahsultana @jeremycorbyn

9/ **FORCE MEDIA COVERAGE** 140+ zones affecting every aspect of national life deserve investigation. Contact journalists, write letters to editors, share information on social media. This can’t stay buried in business sections.

10/ **PRESSURE YOUR MP** Demand parliamentary scrutiny of ISZ governance, the Freeports/Investment Zones merger, Defence and AI Growth Zone expansion, and conflicts of interest on zone governance boards.

11/ **CONNECT INTERNATIONALLY** This is happening globally: Special Economic Zones, Export Processing Zones, corporate sovereignty. Connect with communities worldwide fighting the same battle. Share strategies and solidarity.

12/ **REMEMBER: THESE ZONES ARE FRAGILE** They depend on public money (withdrawable), public legitimacy (challengeable), political protection (can be voted out), legal frameworks (contestable), and community acquiescence (transformable into resistance).
The window for resistance is closing, but it hasn’t closed. Every zone operates on public subsidy and political permission. Both can be revoked. Organize. Challenge. Resist.
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I'm seeing a massive slowdown on my posts about free zones, please read, and RT.
I'm basically the only person in the UK exposing the colossal Ponzi scheme of deregulated free zones in the UK.
I'm a volunteer who works tirelessly to bring you evidence-based facts directly from the UK Government's website and numerous academic sources on the dangers these free zones represent with regard to the commons.
Reminder - The Tories initiated these immediately after Brexit, Labour quietly signed off on them while publicly stating freeports/freezones were 'not a silver bullet for the economy'.
Labour is now merging the Tories' freeports and SEZs into Industrial Strategy Zones (ISZs) as per their June 2025 published policy paper.
gov.uk/government/pub…
Starmer launched AI Growth Zones in January 2025, these will be the deregulated digital layer of free zones, also part of Blair and Starmer's push for Digital ID.
gov.uk/government/pub…
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