- Battery Factory Plans in Northumberland Hampered by Tax Fraud Allegations
- Recharge Industries Delays Payment for Potential Facility Site
- Uncertainty Surrounds Funding and Development of £4 Billion Plant
The Australian police assault on Britishvolt’s buyer has delayed Northumberland’s battery factory plans.
Scale Facilitation and SaniteX, founded by Australian entrepreneur David Collard, were investigated for tax evasion.
This year, Recharge Industries, a subsidiary of Scale Facilitation, acquired the bankrupt Britishvolt.
However, it has not yet paid for a potential facility site close to the Port of Blyth.
According to sources close to Mr. Collard, a former partner at the multinational accounting firm PwC, the tax search was the result of a misunderstanding of the interaction between American and Australian tax filings, and all parties were cooperating.
Recharge Industries is ultimately owned and managed by the New York-based investment fund with Australian offices, Scale Facilitation.
After Britishvolt’s collapse, Recharge Industries obtained its assets.
Britishvolt had planned to construct a £4 billion plant in Cambois, Northumberland, near Blyth, to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles and create approximately 3,000 skilled positions.
However, the business struggled to generate a profit and ran out of cash in January.
Recharge Industries’ March 31 deadline to finalise and pay for the Northumberland property has been extended significantly.
Recharge insiders said all wages had been paid after two weeks.
They stated that the company remained confident that it would be able to secure the necessary funding within two to four weeks to conclude the purchase of the land near Blyth.
The owners of Recharge are still hopeful that an agreement can be reached to develop the £4 billion site.
It is anticipated that Recharge will acquire a minority stake in North East Gigafactory Development LLP, with well-known and wealthy investors Tritax and Abrdn possessing the majority.
Recharge’s initial intention for the site was to develop battery storage technology, not electric vehicle batteries.
The government’s enthusiasm for the initiative had waned as a result of the emphasis placed on it.
Kemi Badenoch and Grant Shapps have not met with the Australian owners.
Nonetheless, it appears that expectations for an imminent start on a plant that would create thousands of jobs in the North East have been put on hold once more.
