Chris Grayling insisted there would be 'no hard border' at Dover after Brexit (Source: Getty)
Transport secretary Chris Grayling has said trucks coming into Dover will be checked after the UK leaves the European Union.
Friday 16 March 2018 1:50pm
Grayling told BBC Question Time it would be "unrealistic" to impose checks on lorries coming into the port, which, according to an Imperial College London study, could introduce traffic queues of up to 29 miles based on two-minute checks.
He said the UK would avoid such time-consuming checks through maintaining a "seamless" electronic border.
Ministers have previously stated that a hard border in Ireland would similarly be avoided through the use of technology at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which will stay in the Single Market and customs union after Brexit.
Imperial College London report said just two extra minutes on each vehicle check could more than triple existing queues (Source: Getty)
"We will maintain a free flowing border at Dover - we will not impose checks in the port," Grayling said. "We don't check lorries now - we're not going to be checking lorries in Dover in the future.
"The only reason we would have queues at the border is if we put in place restrictions that created those queues - we are not going to do that."
Imports from, and exports to, countries from outside the European Union are currently subject to customs controls, but goods from the EU are free to be moved on with no extra checks.
Andy McDonald, Labour's shadow transport secretary, said Grayling's comments showed "how unprepared" the government was in leaving the EU.
Chris Grayling let the cat out of the bag by exposing how unprepared the government are for leaving the European Union. The government said leaving the EU is about regaining control of our borders but the transport secretary’s plan would achieve the exact opposite.
The only serious and workable proposal to avoid a gridlock at our ports and to ensure the flow of goods in and out of the country post-Brexit is Labour’s plan for a new comprehensive UK-EU customs union with our European neighbours.
Best for Britain spokesperson Paul Butters said Grayling's stance was "pie in the sky thinking".
It's fitting that Chris Grayling took the opportunity on national Pi day to spell out this Government's pie in the sky thinking. The government plans to take back control of Britain's border by not having any.
To be clear: you cannot have a clean break from the EU and expect no border checks - that's simply the nature of having tariffs.
Its authors, economists Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny, instead urged the government to introduce an auction system for visas as a “flexible alternative to a complex points based system”.
Savodny said:“The UK has a unique opportunity to replace its immigration system with one that would benefit the economy and increase support for immigration. Auctioning visas to employers is the best way to bring in talented workers who contribute to the economy while minimising any harms to UK natives.”
The authors said that immigration has had a negligible effect on the earnings of people born in the UK, but cite a post-Brexit attitudes study that showed that 73 per cent of those who voted leave named immigration as a concern.
Head of research at the Adam Smith Institute Sam Dumitriu said that an auction system could help foster public support for immigration and benefit the UK economy.
“It is vital that the UK’s post-Brexit immigration policy is informed by evidence. This important report by two distinguished economists reviews extensive empirical research to develop the framework for an innovative immigration policy that meets the UK’s specific economic requirements and improves the public’s support for immigration,” he said.
Head of City leasing at CBRE Chris Vydra said that the real estate market in the City remains especially strong.
“Demand for office space in the City remains robust. The level of under offers in the City reached 1.4m sq ft in February, accounting for 38 per cent of the Central London total," he said.
The largest transaction last month was Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s acquisition of 161,200 sq ft at 100 Liverpool Street in EC2.
The banking sector saw the largest proportion of take-up in February at 40 per cent, followed by the creative industries at 23 per cent and the consumer and leisure sector at 14 per cent.
Eversheds Sutherland City real estate partner Nick Bartlett said that demand, particularly for high-quality office space, remained high.
“The market feels quite buoyant, there is a lot of demand from both occupiers and would be purchasers. The buildings we have been involved in have been recently constructed by investors, leased up very quickly by occupiers and sold on to long-term investors. It feels like there is quite a lot of movement in the market and deals are being done.”
CBRE previously predicted that 2018 would be a bumper year for City office take-up with businesses expected to lease more than 5m sq ft over the course of the year.
It said that Brexit has had a minimal impact on financial and insurance firms’ appetite for office space in the City. It also predicted that demand for co-working space would continue to boost-office take-up in the Square Mile this year.
London has overtaken New York as the top real estate investment spot for Norway's massive $1 trillion (£715bn) sovereign wealth fund.
Tuesday 13 March 2018 6:23pm
Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, co-owns Regent Street (Source: Getty)
The fund, which is one of the biggest investors in the UK and co-owns Regent Street, bought almost £200m worth of London property last year in partnership with the Queen's Crown Estate.
These included a 25 per cent stake 10 Piccadilly worth £32.3m, a 25 per cent stake in 263-269 Oxford Street and 1-4 Princes Street for £30m, and 25 per cent of 20 Air Street for £112.5m.
At the end of 2017, London accounted for 22.8 per cent of Norway's Global Government Pension Fund's private real estate investment followed by New York at 21.5 per cent and Paris at 19.1 per cent.
“A total of 81 per cent of all office investment transactions in central London were purchased by overseas investors in 2017," said Chris Brett of real estate investment giant CBRE.
"London will continue to attract capital from a diverse range of global investors. We expect 2018 to once again be driven by Asian and European investment. We also anticipate strong inflows from Israeli institutions and private Middle Eastern investors.”
Although the Norwegian fund, managed by Norges Bank, witnessed "some weakness" in UK occupier activity, it promised to remain committed to the UK.
It added that office occupancy levels in London remained relatively stable – vacancy rates in the City and Docklands rose to six and eight percent respectively, but the West End and Southbank each saw slight declines in vacancies.
The fund owned 179 office and retail properties in Europe at the end of 2017, 148 of which were part of the Regent Street and Mayfair Pollen Estate portfolios.
"London has proved its resilience and magnetism as a global hub in the wake of the EU referendum, with a diverse spectrum of investors and occupiers identifying the city as the best place in which to conduct their business," said Colliers' David Hanrahan.
REMAIN campaigners like to pose as the champions of truth. Unable to comprehend their defeat in the EU referendum they constantly proclaim that the case for Brexit was built on the deception of the public.
Mr Duncan Smith rightly argues that post Brexit there should be tough restrictions on EU immigration
A particular target for their fury is the Leavers’ claim that Britain sends £350million a week to Brussels, money that the Government will be able to spend at home once we take back control of our national finances after independence.
Brimming with righteous indignation the Remoaners dismiss this as “a lie”. But it is nothing of the sort. The reality is our gross annual contribution to the EU coffers is about £18billion. It is true that we receive a substantial rebate but such a sum is always vulnerable to the whims of Brussels bureaucrats.
Nor does our payment include all the other costs of EU membership such as compliance with officialdom. Indeed the extent of our financial subjugation to Brussels has been painfully illustrated by Brexit negotiations, with the EU making ever more punitive demands.
There is no basis for the Remoaners’ hysteria about supposed dishonesty from the Brexit camp. On the contrary their whole stance reeks of hypocrisy. They are the ones who constantly indulge in misleading propaganda. They constantly extol the virtues of open borders, telling us that free movement is the real engine of British prosperity.
Much of their noisy advocacy for the EU has descended into a form of national self-loathing, with European migrants portrayed as far more skilled, diligent and successful than lazy, feckless Britons.
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independent think tank Migration Watch was founded by distinguished former diplomat Lord Green
That mentality was perfectly captured in the words of arch-Remainer Lord Kerr, who declared: “We native Brits are so bloody stupid that we need an injection of intelligent people from outside.”
According to the pro-Brussels, anti-British narrative, the vast EU influx is a source of unalloyed economic growth and fiscal generosity. But that theory, which has become the orthodoxy of our times, has just been blown apart by a research paper from former Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith. Based on calculations by independent think tank Migration Watch, which was founded by distinguished former diplomat Lord Green, this new study estimates that EU migrants actually claimed £4billion a year in benefits in 2013/14.
Part of the sum was made up of £1.1billion in payouts for jobless Europeans. Another £714 million went on child benefit. Duncan Smith's paper shows that migrants from 10 European countries, most of them in the former Soviet bloc, receive more than 20 per cent of their income tax and national insurance contributions back in tax credits and child benefit, compared with the UK average of 16 per cent.
Mr Duncan Smith rightly argues that post Brexit there should be tough restrictions on EU immigration including bars on entry for those without jobs or the ability to support themselves. It is ridiculous that under Brussels rule we have to support foreigners who may have made no contribution to our society but want to exploit our welfare state. That approach demeans the very concept of citizenship.
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The Remoaners won't get over the fact that they lost
But it is precisely what has been happening, despite the Remoaners’ attempts to hide the truth. One study by the Office for National Statistics last year revealed that there are 390,000 EU nationals living here who are economically inactive. In the same vein, when David Cameron tried unsuccessfully in 2016 to negotiate the reform of free movement, Downing Street admitted that “40 per cent of EU migrants who have arrived in the last four years are supported by the benefits system”.
Even those EU newcomers in work are often burdens on the state because their low pay has to be subsidised by tax credits. In a notorious but characteristic outburst Left-wing commentator Yasmin Alibhai-Brown once wrote that “tax-paying migrants past and present keep indolent British scroungers on their couches drinking beer and watching TV”. But that is an offensive delusion. In fact British people have paid twice over for the massive import of cheap labour. First, at the bottom end of the market, they have seen their own living standards ferociously squeezed by foreign competition.
Second, they have seen their taxes used to underwrite dismal wages. This is the economics of the madhouse: the publicly funded welfare state enables employers to hire foreigners on low pay to the exclusion of British workers.
It is amazing that progressives, because they are so wedded to the ideology of mass immigration, should still support this racket, which has brought Britain squalor, exploitation and poverty. In one telling case 35 Eastern European workers were found living in a five-bedroom house in London. Some migrants even live in makeshift camps on open ground in the capital. Pressure group Migrants Rights Network bleated that such outcomes are “regrettable” but are now “a feature of London life”. Well, they shouldn’t be, but that is what free movement has imposed on us.
Other consequences can be seen all around us: in pressures on the NHS and schools, in the number of foreign nationals in British jails, and in rising homelessness, with migrants comprising 60 per cent of rough sleepers in the capital.
That all adds up to the real price of EU membership, far beyond anything the Brexiteers claimed on the side of their campaign bus.
