Five of the seven inland border facilities built in England and Wales after Brexit never opened, after Conservative ministers delayed reciprocal checks on European Union imports for years, ultimately deciding to unilaterally accept EU standards despite the bloc refusing to do the same thing for Britain. Figures published by The Guardian, drawn from a Freedom of Information request to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), put the five unused sites at about £77 million.
The European Union treated Britain as a third country from January 1, 2021, and checked British goods in Calais, Dublin and other EU ports from day one. Conservative ministers first unilaterally waived and then repeatedly delayed matching checks, allowing the EU to reap the benefits of punishing British exporters with few of the downsides.
They did later introduce a reduced system. The Border Target Operating Model, published on August 29, 2023, set health certification from January 31, 2024; documentary and risk-based identity and physical checks on medium-risk animal products, plants and high-risk food from the EU from April 30, 2024; and safety and security declarations from October 31, 2024.
Dover’s “white cliffs” site at Guston has cost £28 million and is still a field despite £21 million spent to procure the land and £7 million on groundworks, including a Roman archaeological survey. Residents were told of the plans on December 31, 2020, hours before the transition year ended. In June 2022, HMRC said it would not progress the new Dover inland border facility, calling the decision a saving of around £120 million in anticipated develop-and-run costs. The Department for Transport owns the land.
Birmingham’s airport car park took £17 million: £11 million to build and £6 million to close. Warrington, at the former Shearings coach stop at Appleton Thorn, was meant for Irish Sea traffic into Liverpool, Holyhead and Heysham: £7 million to buy, £9 million to build and £1 million to decommission, another £17 million. Converting the Eurostar car park at Ebbsfleet cost £4 million and closing it another £6 million. North Weald airfield, off the M11, cost £3 million to build and £2 million to close. The same 2022 update closed Birmingham and North Weald early.
Two of the seven sites did open. Sevington in Kent, about 20 miles inland, had capital costs of £154 million, previously disclosed in a parliamentary question, and running costs of £179 million. That capital bill included £30 million for farmland between Sevington and Mersham and £70 million to build; those two lines do not make up the whole £154 million. Holyhead cost £14 million to acquire and £23 million to build. The 2022 update described both as operational.
Portsmouth International Port, which is owned by the city council, spent £23 million on a separate border control post — £17.1 million in government funding and a £6 million shortfall covered by the council, money that could otherwise have gone to essential services. It was built to government specifications for food import and biosecurity checks, capable of handling 80 trailer checks a day. Under the 2024 operating model, port director Mike Sellers says, it has averaged two a day. Repurposing the building would cost almost as much as demolishing it.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal with Brussels, largely agreed in May, is due in the first quarter of 2028 after the removal of former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delayed the second UK-EU summit, now set for November 20. A draft joint statement to be issued by Burnham and EU leaders says the deal would allow “the vast majority of movements of animals, animal products, plants and plant products between Great Britain and the Crown Dependencies and the EU to take place without the certificates or controls that are currently required.” However, the delay is also tied to Britain needing to “dynamically align” its food standards laws with the EU’s, so those rules would follow Brussels as they change, with oversight by the European Court of Justice. Burnham and Starmer have already agreed to a number of other concessions to secure this deal—despite the fact it already favors the EU, as a net exporter to Britain—such as agreeing to let EU vessels continue catching a majority of the fish in British waters until at least 2038.
