Battery pioneer Britishvolt has criticised the Government for acting too slowly and changing the terms of a £100m grant that is seen as key to getting its £3.8bn North East gigafactory off the ground.
In an exclusive interview with BusinessLive, the start-up's executive chairman Peter Rolton and chief UK projects manager Tony Laydon sought to dispel speculation the project had run into trouble, but said the Government's handling of the promised support had "not been very helpful". Despite the Prime Minister claiming confirmation of the support had been sent in early July, when challenged by Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery in the House of Commons, Mr Rolton said it took another three weeks to secure.
He said: "It took longer than we thought to get the grant out of the Government. The grant is actually secured against manufactured equipment. What was meant to happen originally was that they were going to give us that as deposits for the equipment but they realised the equipment doesn't arrive for six months to a year because it's all manufactured in Korea or Germany so they won't give us the grant until the equipment is in the UK. The grant is actually coming in against equipment we've already paid for.
