Britain’s plans to become a leading maker of electric car batteries has floundered with news of the collapse of Britishvolt, a new company which hoped to build a £3.8bn battery plant in Cambois, near Blyth in Northumberland.

Administrators EY have taken over the business and most of the 300 staff have been laid off after final attempts to secure funding failed.

Britishvolt had planned to produce enough batteries for over 300,000 electric vehicles each year. It had secured government’s support – thought to be worth around £100m - for the Gigafactory through the Automotive Transformation Fund, but this was dependent on certain milestones being reached and private investment being forthcoming.

The project was set to create 3,000 direct highly-skilled jobs and another 5,000 indirect jobs in the wider supply chain. Ex Prime Minister Boris Johnson was vocal supporter of the project.

It’s known other investors are now circling around the project, hoping to be able to scoop up the assets at a knock-down price. A senior industry figure told us: "Firstly, this was an inevitable tragedy and big questions need to be asked about how we got here, especially the government's involvement. The Blyth site is attractive but the UK is not looking so good from an investment point of view at the moment, with question marks over factors such as energy costs, for example."

Ginny Buckley, founder of Electrifying.com, said: “This doesn’t take away the need to establish a thriving gigafactory industry here in the UK. And the site at Blyth is very attractive, with connection to Norway’s hydroelectric power and it’s also close to a deep-water port. We have first class automotive industry leaders and entrepreneurs here in the UK who have the skill set to make a success of this plan and I don’t expect this to be the end of the story.”

The former PM was a vocal supporter of the project