Hopes are rising that Britishvolt has secured funding to keep alive its plans for a 3,000-job gigafactory in Northumberland.
A number of reports on Monday suggested that the company was on the verge of going into administration, with accountancy giants EY lined up to take control of the struggling firm. But now it is understood that the company is close to securing finance to maintain its future, though it is not clear either the source of the funding or how long it will maintain the firm.
Britishvolt has been developing a £3.8bn gigafactory in Cambois, Northumberland, which it had hoped would employ up to 3,000 workers, plus another 5,000 in its supply chain. But it been in emergency fundraising talks in recent weeks and is yet to receive Government funding thought to be around £100m first promised at the start of the year.
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Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery, whose constituency includes the potential Britishvolt site, has called on the Government to release funding for the firm and said Ministers would be to blame if the scheme failed. Britishvolt has so far declined to comment on the reports around its future other than to release a statement saying that it was “actively working on several potential scenarios that offer the required stability.”
The company - which was only formed at the end of 2019 - hopes to produce more than 300,000 lithium-ion batteries a year on the site of the former coal yards of the old Blyth Power Station. It has signed a number of memorandums of agreement over potential deals to supply batteries but is yet to finalise its product or seal any final deals. Earlier this month it admitted that its plans have been “refocused and sharpened given the negative global economic situation” after a number of delays to the project.
The troubles facing Britishvolt have come to a head as Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch was in the North East for a summit that aimed to highlight the UK’s green industries in a bid to secure investment for them. Ms Badenoch visited Blyth earlier in the week to see the ORE Catapult, a research centre for the offshore wind industry, but did not refer to the nearby Britishvolt site in her speech.
On Monday, a spokesman for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “We are determined to ensure the UK remains one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing as we transition to electric vehicles, while ensuring taxpayer money is used responsibly and provides best-value. We do not comment on speculation or the commercial affairs of private companies.”
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