By this time next week a planning application for Britain’s first gigafactory will have been submitted to Northumberland county council.

The proposal is for a £2.6bn 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 test case is all the more remarkable coming from Britishvolt, a start-up business that, as yet, has no disclosed customers and no disclosed funding.