Read: Welcome to Blyth, the home of Britain’s new giga-economy

This time next week a planning application for Britain’s first gigafactory will have been submitted to Northumberland county council. The stakes, however, are much higher than the nuts and bolts of logistics, access, local jobs and the fate of the local deer that roam the site at the moment. For many onlookers, this is a test of how serious Britain really is about creating a zero-emission automotive industry,

The proposal is for a £2.6 billion battery manufacturing plant on the Cambois Peninsula on the north bank of the River Blyth, a facility intended to produce electric energy storage cells for 300,000 vehicles a year by 2027. If all goes to plan, ISG, the constructor, will be on site in July.

The scheme would be revolutionary for British carmaking if it was coming from an established player, be it a battery maker or a car company, but making the test even more significant is the fact that it is the brainchild of a start-up, a business that, as yet, has no disclosed customers and no disclosed funding.

Read the full story in The Times

Read comment from the Social Mobility Pledge: Leveraging the power of business to create opportunity