UK Brexit border posts drive at least £100m in unused public spending

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HMRC data reveals at least £100m in taxpayer money spent on seven UK inland border facilities that remained unused or were quickly decommissioned after Brexit policy changes.
The Portsmouth port built a £23m border control post, with £17.1m government funding, but has never operated at full capacity, leaving the council to cover a £6m shortfall.
Additional expenditures include £17m on a Birmingham facility and £20m on Warrington and Ebbsfleet sites, highlighting budget risks from unstable post-Brexit border planning.

HMRC data details unused border facility costs

As reported by The Guardian, citing HMRC data released under a freedom of information request, at least £100m in taxpayer money was spent on seven inland border facilities that were later unused or quickly decommissioned as the Conservative government changed its approach to checks on goods arriving from the continent.

The fresh spending breakdown adds to a wider estimate from the National Audit Office last year, which put the overall cost of Brexit at about £4.7bn, including long-term changes to customs declaration software and other systems needed after the UK left the single market.

Five of the seven facilities in England and Wales never reached operational stage after ministers decided not to implement all planned border checks, having concluded that food arriving from the EU would remain at the same high standard as before Brexit.

Portsmouth port, owned by the city council, spent £23m building a border control post that has never been used at full capacity because of the scaled-back checks. The port received £17.1m in government funding, leaving the council to cover a £6m gap that could otherwise have gone to essential services.

HMRC information shows the Portsmouth facility alone has so far cost the taxpayer £28m even though it remains a field. The Department for Transport paid £21m to procure the site and spent another £7m on initial ground works, including an archaeological survey for possible Roman remains.

Another £17m was spent on a Birmingham border facility planned for an airport car park, with newly released figures showing £11m in construction costs and £6m in closure costs. A further £20m was spent on sites in Warrington and Ebbsfleet, south of the Dartford Bridge on the Thames estuary.

Fiscal impact sharpens scrutiny of Brexit infrastructure planning

The figures underline how repeated changes to border policy created stranded public assets and additional costs for both central and local government. They also point to the budget risk of building trade infrastructure before final operating rules are settled.

For local authorities such as Portsmouth, the spending leaves a direct funding burden alongside lost opportunities to deploy money elsewhere. More broadly, the episode adds to scrutiny of how post-Brexit logistics and customs investments were planned, procured and later scaled back across the UK transport and border management system.

Our earlier coverage of Chancellor John Healey’s deficit-reduction stance ahead of the October 28 Budget outlined his commitment to sticking with a path of fiscal discipline while still trying to support growth. We also noted the modest 0.1% UK GDP expansion in August and the rising political pressure around how the government should balance restraint with measures to boost resilience.

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