2:37 pm, February 22, 2024
Administrators for Britishvolt say they’re still chasing money from the Australian buyer of the site and are looking into other potential deals.
The gigafactory project in Cambois, near Blyth, Northumberland, collapsed into administration last January, leaving most of the 300 staff without jobs and with little construction work having been done.
Recharge Industries emerged as a possible saviour, with EY agreeing a deal last February that would see the Australian firm buy the site for less than £10m.
But last summer it emerged that Recharge had missed some of the payments on the site, including the final one. Earlier, it was revealed that the offices of Recharge’s owner had been raided as part of a tax investigation.
Now EY says Recharge is still in default a year after it agreed to sell the site, and the administrators say they have held discussions with other potential buyers for the site.
The news comes as the BBC reported today that Northumberland councillors had voted to approve a £15m ‘strategic acquisition fund’, which the broadcaster said could let the council buy back the land that Britishvolt originally bought for £4.8m.
Britishvolt had said it could create some 8,000 jobs for the region by supplying a gigafactory to produce batteries for electric cars, and the near-£4bn plant was promised some £100m of government grants if it could reach certain milestones.
In a document added to Companies House today, EY said: ‘The buyer continues to remain in default … and, as such, the joint administrators have held discussions with a number of additional parties who have intimated that they may be interested in acquiring the proposed gigafactory site in Northumberland.’
Negotiations with the other suitors were said to be ongoing and EY added: ‘We are unable to provide more detailed commentary given the commercial sensitivities surrounding these negotiations.’
Image credit: Owen Humphreys/PA
