UK BATTERY FIRM BRITISHVOLT NEAR COLLAPSE AS SEEKS FUNDING

BRITISHVOLT could fall into administration as soon as Monday after the government withdrew a promised £100m in funding from the battery firm.

The start-up, which has been championed by ministers, wanted to build a factory in Northumberland to produce batteries for electric vehicles.

However, it has been twice been forced to delay production. The BBC understands ministers withdrew the funding after learning it would be used for day-to-day operations.

The government cash, announced in January, was originally intended to boost investment in the new battery manufacturing plant in Blyth in the north east of England.

Britishvolt’s so-called gigafactory, not yet built, would create around 3,000 jobs.

A spokesperson for Britishvolt said: “We are aware of market speculation. We are actively working on several potential scenarios that offer the required stability. We have no further comment at this time.” The company’s gigafactory had been hailed by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a “levelling up opportunity” which would bring “thousands of new highly-skilled jobs to communities in our industrial heartlands”.

The then Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the gigafactory and the jobs it was forecast to create “is exactly what levelling up looks like”.

However, Britishvolt was recently forced to delay the start of production at the plant in north east England for a second time. It had been scheduled to begin by the end of next year but this was pushed back to the end of 2024.

Then in August, the company announced it would be delayed again until the middle of 2025.

At the time the firm blamed “difficult external economic headwinds including rampant inflation and rising interest rates”.

The promise of £100m in government funding had helped Britishvolt raise a further £1.7bn from private investors. These included UK asset investment giant Abrdn and fund manager Tritax.