"A Bitter Taste in our Mouths": Brexit’s Border Control ‘White Elephants’ Spark Outrage

The UK government is under growing pressure to compensate ports and fresh produce businesses for post-Brexit border infrastructure now deemed potentially obsolete, as senior industry figures slam the multimillion-pound rollout of border control posts (BCPs) as a colossal waste of public and private money.

“Border Control Posts are the white elephants of Brexit,” declared Richard Ballantyne, CEO of the British Ports Association, in a blunt assessment of the post-Brexit infrastructure strategy for BBC Farming Today.

“The total cost of BCPs was around £200 million from government and an additional £120 million from the industry itself in capital costs,” Ballantyne explained.

“For larger BCPs it’s around £200,000 a year just to manage with energy, security, business rates etc.,” he added.

One glaring example, the government-commissioned facility at Sevington, has become a symbol of excess. “Who paid for that? The figure that was spent on that was getting on for half a billion of public sector funding,” confirmed Ballantyne. “So, we’re in a very difficult situation as much of this facility is now redundant, although we don’t know for sure that we don’t need the facility at all.”

Ballantyne said the ports acted in good faith, guided by government policy, and are now left with sunk investments and no clear way forward.

“The ports have invested in good faith under the direction of government, so we are now asking for compensation. They were built in haste and at great cost. We’re left with a really bitter taste in our mouths.”

That sentiment is echoed across the fresh produce sector, where industry leaders are equally critical of the government's handling. Nigel Jenney, Chief Executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC), warned of massive financial consequences if UK-EU negotiations render private sector-built control points obsolete.

“Those facilities, assuming the agreement is reached, will become redundant,” Jenney told BBC Farming Today. “So that is why, like others, we are calling for compensation from the government, because these businesses have spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pounds of their own money to build facilities under the encouragement of two successive governments that ultimately, in a few months, will become obsolete.”

While the government has committed to pursuing an agreement with the EU to ease sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks on food and plant imports, Jenney warned that the deal is far from finalised.

“We don’t have an agreement yet,” he noted. “We have a commitment to discuss and agree something, but the details have not been finalised.

Listen to the episode here.

"In some respects, we welcome the opportunity with caution. It should be positive for many businesses that trade from the UK and EU in terms of fruit, veg, cut flowers and plant businesses. However, there is a price for this, in terms of the costs that businesses have already incurred—including the control points.”

Jenney further cautioned that dynamic alignment with EU regulations could have unintended consequences beyond Europe. “It would appear that we are going to adopt EU legislation, which could well impact on our trade with our ‘rest of world’ countries as well,” he warned.

“As an industry, we move from country to country to give consumers the best available products year-round. If you take citrus—one of the most consumed fruits in the UK—right now, if we’re buying citrus from South Africa or Egypt, for example, there are no border controls because the consignments are not considered to be a biosecurity risk. Yet, if we adopt the EU regulations, many of them will be subject to 100% inspection, which means delays, costs and disruption to the whole industry.”

He added: “Ultimately, government hasn’t confirmed and hasn’t denied, but no clarification has been given. Surely this is about a discussion between the UK and the EU—it should not have the potential liability to impact trade with other countries, especially when these goods, which will arrive from other countries, will be consumed in the UK. They will not be consumed in Europe.”

A government spokesperson has stated: “Closing border control posts will depend on the final shape of the deal.”

With hundreds of millions already spent and clarity still lacking, industry voices are calling louder than ever for accountability, reimbursement, and urgent answers.

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