How a £1-an-acre trick is quietly handing Britain's industrial commons to AI companies, and why nobody has connected the dots until now.
My new essay on the Anthropic/Teesside data centre deal, the Paris AI Summit walkout, and why the UK's "free zones" programme is quietly sabotaging any future return to the EU.
Please subscribe, and support my research.
open.substack.com/pub/europeanpo…
1/8
My new essay on the Anthropic/Teesside data centre deal, the Paris AI Summit walkout, and why the UK's "free zones" programme is quietly sabotaging any future return to the EU.
Please subscribe, and support my research.
open.substack.com/pub/europeanpo…
1/8
1/ THE TEESSIDE DEAL: Two businessmen got the right to buy public land for £1/acre in 2021. The public body that owns it spent £450m+ cleaning it up.
This month, they sell 222 acres to Anthropic for £222m.
That's a roughly 1,000x markup, captured almost entirely by two men.
This month, they sell 222 acres to Anthropic for £222m.
That's a roughly 1,000x markup, captured almost entirely by two men.
2/ Jobs at the resulting Anthropic data centre: - 200.
Jobs originally promised when Teesside got freeport status in 2021: 20,000.
The £1/acre option sold as a "quick delivery incentive" has become the permanent mechanism for intercepting any investor before they reach the public.
Jobs originally promised when Teesside got freeport status in 2021: 20,000.
The £1/acre option sold as a "quick delivery incentive" has become the permanent mechanism for intercepting any investor before they reach the public.
3/ THE PART NO ONE'S COVERED: this exact transaction would almost certainly be illegal under EU state aid law.
The EU has a specific rule (the 1997 Communication) for public land sales: open bidding, or independent valuation. Neither happened here. This is the textbook case the rule exists for.
The EU has a specific rule (the 1997 Communication) for public land sales: open bidding, or independent valuation. Neither happened here. This is the textbook case the rule exists for.
4/ So why is this legal in the UK?
Not because the UK won an argument about compliance. Because on 31 Dec 2020, the Commission lost jurisdiction over Great Britain entirely. The UK didn't beat the rules, it left the building before the test was sat.
What replaced it (Subsidy Control Act 2022) has no independent enforcement body. By design.
Not because the UK won an argument about compliance. Because on 31 Dec 2020, the Commission lost jurisdiction over Great Britain entirely. The UK didn't beat the rules, it left the building before the test was sat.
What replaced it (Subsidy Control Act 2022) has no independent enforcement body. By design.
5/ THE PARIS CONNECTION: Feb 2025, UK + US refuse to sign the Paris AI declaration on "inclusive and sustainable AI". Everyone covered this as Vance vs Macron.
It was also the regulatory half of the SAME decision. Weeks earlier, the UK had launched the AI Opportunities Action Plan, the blueprint for AI Growth Zones.
Land deregulation + AI deregulation = one strategy, two tracks.
It was also the regulatory half of the SAME decision. Weeks earlier, the UK had launched the AI Opportunities Action Plan, the blueprint for AI Growth Zones.
Land deregulation + AI deregulation = one strategy, two tracks.
6/ AI Growth Zones (Teesside is now one) stack fast-track planning + priority grid access ON TOP of the £1/acre land structure.
The same mechanism that yielded a few million on a port quay in 2020 now yields hundreds of millions on an AI data centre. Same trick, bigger prize.
The same mechanism that yielded a few million on a port quay in 2020 now yields hundreds of millions on an AI data centre. Same trick, bigger prize.
7/ THE KICKER: Labour talks about "closer alignment" with the EU. But every AI Growth Zone built on this template adds another deal that EU state aid review would tear apart, with named beneficiaries facing recovery demands running into hundreds of millions.
Each new zone makes "closer alignment" politically more expensive to ever deliver. The zones rollout isn't separate from the alignment conversation. It's quietly building the wall against it.
Each new zone makes "closer alignment" politically more expensive to ever deliver. The zones rollout isn't separate from the alignment conversation. It's quietly building the wall against it.
8/ Full essay connects: the Teesworks land scandal, the EU law mechanism that makes it possible, the Paris Summit walkout, and what it all means for any future UK-EU relationship.
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