Levelling down

The collapse of the Britishvolt battery project due to be built on a site near Blyth is a serious blow to the country’s industrial infrastructure, with immediate employment consequences in the region.

The scheme was announced in 2019 and lauded as an example of “levelling up”. The Government was prepared to put up £100million for the so-called gigafactory on condition it met certain milestones, which failed to materialise.

The Government was right to protect taxpayers from the risks of a failed enterprise but it has left a major hole in both the country’s industrial policy and its zero-carbon ambitions. Car companies switching to the production of electric vehicles will leave the UK if there is no battery capacity when it exists in other European countries. Only one gigafactory has been built here beside the Nissan plant in Sunderland. Yet it is estimated that as many as 10 will be needed by 2040.

It is to be hoped that a serious investor will still be attracted to the Blyth site or elsewhere. But as Sir James Dyson highlights in today’s paper, the Government’s shortsighted economic policies are driving productive businesses, which otherwise might be willing to invest, away from Britain.

In this case, the mistake is to see everything in the context of “levelling up” rather than as essential additions to national infrastructure. The alternative to a home-grown gigafactory is reliance on China, a country with which the Government seeks to reduce ties. The policies are contradictory.

In just seven years’ time the Government proposes to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in order to encourage the switch to EVS. This deadline looks increasingly fanciful.