Yahoo Finance Bring Tesla to Teesside, Ben Houchen tells Elon Musk
Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has told Elon Musk that his region would host a new Tesla factory "in a flash" in a direct pitch to the billionaire.
Issuing a Twitter plea to the US tech tycoon after The Telegraph revealed growing speculation that Mr Musk could seek to build a UK factory, Mr Houchen said: "Hartlepool and the Tees Valley still stand ready to deliver a new Gigafactory - Just say the word."
The intervention comes amid heightened speculation that the entrepreneur is planning a new base in the UK following a flying visit last weekend.
He touched down days after the Office for Investment (OIA) asked regions across the country to submit site options at short notice for a 250ha car factory.
Mr Houchen is already overseeing the biggest regeneration project in the UK across 4,500 acres of land, including the former SSI steelworks, in a region set to become Britain's largest freeport.
The Department for International Trade has refused to comment on the identity of the potential investor, while Downing Street has denied a rumoured meeting between Mr Musk and Boris Johnson at Chequers after the billionaire’s jet landed at nearby Luton airport.
But the mayor - who was overwhelmingly re-elected with 73pc of the vote earlier this month - none the less urged Mr Musk to act.
He said: “If the rumours are true, it does concern me that the Government is not engaging us directly with Tesla. We’d have Musk in a flash and I’m more than confident that we could accommodate his requirements.”
Mr Houchen also tweeted a letter he sent to Mr Musk last December highlighting the delays at Tesla’s new factory under construction in Berlin.
It offered the firm “hundreds of acres of identified ideal developable land with the can-do attitude in political leadership necessary to ensure delivery of major projects”.
Teesside is among a few realistic options on offer for a project on the scale of a Tesla plant.
The South Yorkshire region, headed by mayor Dan Jarvis, was also among those asked to submit plans but a source said: “Realistically 250ha is massive and a challenge for us having a site that is available, in single ownership.”
Kevin Mofid, head of industrial research at property agent Savills, said: “We're talking about a building of, two or three million square feet, which is huge. For starters, it would comfortably be in the top five biggest buildings in the UK.”
He also stressed the huge energy needs of any new plant as well as skilled labour and the need to accommodate a vast supply chain.
“There aren’t that many places, and this is the point. Blyth is obviously a good location. People are talking about Teesside," Mr Mofid said.
"People are talking about Coventry, but Coventry is in the Green Belt? [Battery maker] Britishvolt was looking at South Wales beforehand.
“The sites that I think are going to be relatively high on the agenda are going to be places where there has been a lot of previous heavy industry. They will have a lot of brownfield land that needs regenerating. Areas like Teesside and South Wales would certainly be top of my list.”
Property industry sources also highlighted Ford’s former Bridgend plant, which closed after 40 years last September and is due to be sold this summer, as a potential option. Mr Musk reportedly visited Somerset's Gravity business park last year.
Professor David Bailey of Birmingham University said: “A Tesla investment in production of cars or batteries in the UK would be a huge boost for a beleaguered auto industry. Investment and production have fallen in recent years amidst diesel’s decline, Brexit and the impact of Covid.
“The UK is lagging behind especially in terms of reorienting the industry towards making electric vehicles, and a Tesla investment could be a big step in making batteries at scale which the UK urgently needs to do. A Tesla investment would be a big vote of confidence in UK auto after a torrid few years."
