Chinese giants will build British gigafactories
EVE Energy has pledged to spend £1.2 billion to build a battery plant at Coventry Airport
It has been revealed that a Chinese group that has switched to BMW to produce electric vehicle batteries is about to invest billions of pounds in the construction of the largest gigafactory in Europe in the United Kingdom.
EVE Energy, the world's largest lithium sub-battery manufacturer, is in advanced talks to build a 60 GWh gigafactory on the outskirts of Coventry.
According to sources close to the talks, the company will initially commit to investing at least £1.2bn to build a 20GWh gigafactory. Subsequent phases of the project are expected to expand the plant's capacity to 60GWh, which will allow it to almost double the size of Nissan's battery plant in Sunderland.
The West Midlands Gigafactory is planned to be the anchor tenant of a mega project called the UK Electrification Centre, a joint venture between local councils and owners of Coventry Airport, where the factory will be built.
The plant will create 6,000 jobs in England and thousands of jobs in the region's supply chain, with an estimated £14 billion in the region's exports of cars and auto parts – almost double the value of the rest of the UK.
EVE, one of the world's five largest EV battery manufacturers, is said to have made "billions of pounds of investment commitments" in a recent letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt. The talks, which were attended by local and central government officials, have been going on for months and are under strict protection, the sources said.
According to people familiar with the matter, the talks are currently at an "advanced stage of exclusivity" and the agreement could be signed "within a few weeks". The arrangements for the negotiations were delicate. The investment depends on hundreds of millions of pounds in subsidies from the UK, likely from £4.5 billion in aid to key manufacturing sectors such as the automotive industry.
For the Conservative Party before the election, reaching this investment deal would be a major coup, especially since the battery maker has chosen the UK over the EU or the US, and the Biden administration is offering a range of incentives for green technology. The White House's Inflation Reduction Act.
It is understood that the Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Streeter, played a key role in facilitating the dialogue between the joint venture, EVE and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Reaching a deal is a major boon for former president John Lewis, who will run for re-election in May.
EVE signed a contract 18 months ago to supply large cylindrical lithium batteries for BMW's electric vehicles in Europe. The Guangdong, China-based group began construction of its first gigafactory in Europe in Debrecen, Hungary, in November.
It is understood that EVE's car manufacturing customers are lining up to buy its UK-made batteries. The manufacturer's name remains under wraps this weekend. BMW will produce electric minis at its factory in Oxford, but declined to comment.
A UK government spokesperson said: "In the transition to electric vehicles, we are determined to ensure that the UK remains one of the best places in the world to manufacture cars, while ensuring that taxpayer money is used responsibly and provides the best value. We do not comment on speculation or business affairs of private companies. ”
The gigafactory will also include a battery recycling plant that can recycle and reprocess car batteries to power home appliances.
The joint venture has reached a separate agreement with the UK's National Grid to secure power supply, according to people familiar with the matter. The gigafactory is also located within the West Midlands Investment Zone, which benefits from significant tax incentives such as a 100% business tax rate reduction, stamp duty relief, and a three-year zero-rated employer's national insurance contribution.
Nissan has partnered with Envision Energy, a Chinese EV battery specialist, to operate the UK's only and other automotive gigafactory. The Tata Group will set up a battery plant in Somerset to supply batteries to Jaguar Land Rover cars, but planning permission has not yet been obtained. Envision has also linked to the JLR website. Planning permission has been granted for the West Midlands Gigafactory.
All parties declined to comment.
The "majority of fees" for UK universities come from foreign students
The growing reliance on overseas cash flow means that some UK university institutions derive more than three-quarters of their income from overseas students
The UK's top university institutions now derive most of their fees from tuition fees for foreign students, who are increasingly reliant on cash flow from overseas to make ends meet.
Dozens of universities, including the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, now receive only a fraction of their tuition fees from local students, with some prestigious institutions deriving more than three-quarters of their tuition fees from overseas.
The universities insisted that being able to attract more and more overseas students was a sign of success, warning that they had no choice but to rely more on foreign students, given the nearly a decade of frozen tuition fees at domestic universities.
The Times reported last week that universities began cutting courses and laying off staff as soon as they saw signs of a decline in the number of foreign students, with university executives calling for a fundamental overhaul of higher education funding to preserve Britain's global reputation and stop institutions from going bankrupt.
The number of foreign students has increased by 50% in five years, and The Times' analysis of financial data shows how reliant universities are on international admissions.
The Russell Group currently generates 57% of its tuition revenue overseas, up from 49% in 2016-17. Between 76 and 79 per cent of tuition fees at world-leading institutions such as University College London, Imperial College London and the London School of Economics and Political Science come from overseas students, with the University of Glasgow reaching 80 per cent, while specialist institutions such as the Royal College of Art and the London School of Hygiene also pay from overseas.
While universities have other sources of income, such as research grants and business investments, most universities rely on tuition fees for the majority of their income.
Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group, said international students benefit universities and that their tuition fee income is "reinvested into high-quality teaching and research for the benefit of all students – filling the gap in the UK government's student funding system".
The organisation says its member university institutions lose £2,500 per year for every UK student and believes this figure will increase to £5,000 by the end of the decade. Bradshaw warned: "As funding shortfalls increase, this leaves the university industry vulnerable to shocks. He said a decline in the number of overseas students could seriously destabilize UK university education and lead to less spending for local communities, fewer opportunities for domestic students, and less research in the UK.
Some of the universities with the fastest growth in overseas tuition fees are newer universities, which had a much smaller number of international students a decade ago. Since 2016, the University of Teesside's tuition fees from overseas have tripled to 33% of all tuition fees, while the University of Roehampton, Bedfordshire, Central Lancashire (Central). Places such as Lancashire and Northumbria have also doubled their share of overseas income to 30 per cent or more. At the University of Hertfordshire, this percentage doubled to 48% of all fees.
Rachel Hewitt, chief executive of MillionPlus, an emerging university organization, said members "need to ensure financial sustainability, and this is a way for them to ensure that goal." She said universities in countries such as Nigeria and India were aggressively recruiting students and found that students were willing to pay, but she said there was a "significant risk" in relying so heavily on overseas funding.
Behind the story
With foreign students sometimes paying more than twice as much tuition fees for the same course as UK students, it's no surprise that many of the UK's top universities are looking overseas when looking for income. Oliver Wright writes that in 2022, 679,970 overseas students studied at UK universities, representing about 24% of the total student body, a record high.
In 2003, the number of international students was less than half of that figure, but the increase was the largest in the past five years.
With tuition fees frozen at £9,250 over the past seven years, university liquidation administrators say they have no choice but to seek to maximise other forms of income. This has led to claims that they give preference to foreign fee-paying students over domestic students – a denial that the universities in question have.
But there are signs that the good times may be over. Universities warned this month that they were facing "very difficult" cuts, such as cancelling courses and laying off academic staff, as the number of foreign students applying for courses began to decline. This year's early admissions data shows a 37% drop in overseas hires for the next financial year.
The industry's problems include Nigeria's economic crisis that has led to a sharp drop in the number of applications, while Indian students have been deterred by the government's crackdown on visas.
Houses in the UK are 'smaller, older and more expensive' than in other countries
One report said that "expensive, cramped and ageing" housing in the UK is the least cost-effective of any developed economy.
An analysis by the Resolution Foundation's think tank found that the typical home in the UK is smaller than in France, Germany and Japan. However, the cost of housing in the UK is almost 40% higher than in comparable countries.
The foundation described the situation as a "housing crisis" and warned the ruling party that policies to address the problem need to be the "center stage" in the next general election.
The report compares housing in the UK with 37 other industrialized countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Homes in the UK are smaller, older and more expensive than in the vast majority of other similar countries, the report said. For example, homes in the United Kingdom have an average floor area of 38 square meters per person, compared to 66 square meters in the United States, 46 square meters in Germany, and 40 square meters in Japan.
At the same time, London has less floor space than Tokyo (33 square meters) and less than New York (44 square meters).
The UK also has the oldest housing in all of Europe, with 38% of homes built before 1946, compared to 21% in Italy and 11% in Spain. The foundation notes that such homes tend to be poorly insulated, leading to higher energy bills and a greater risk of moisture.
"Given that older properties were built where environmental standards were non-existent or well below today, it is not surprising that UK homes perform very poorly in terms of energy efficiency compared to their European counterparts," the report said. ”
The report also says that the number of homes in the UK as a percentage of income is almost lower than in any other country. This is a consequence of the overall cost of housing, with the UK once again lagging behind other advanced economies in terms of affordability, the report said.
To ensure an accurate comparison between countries, the researchers compared the rental value of each house. From a monetary point of view, only Australia and Switzerland have higher housing prices, but these countries have higher GDP per capita and push up the price level of all goods and services. After adjusting for this, house prices in the UK are the most expensive.
"If all UK households were fully involved in our housing market, they would have to spend 22% of their spending on housing, well above the OECD average of 17% and the highest in the G7," the report said. ”
Adam Colette, chief economist at the Resolution Foundation, said that while housing is a major political issue in many countries, data shows that the UK is the most problematic.
Labor has promised to put housing at the top of its agenda if it wins the next election, which will make it harder for residents to block development projects.
At the same time, the Conservatives have pledged to increase housing construction in British cities, arguing that this is the most effective way to increase supply where demand is highest. They are also expected to announce plans to help first-time homebuyers climb the housing ladder.
"Housing construction is a priority for the government, and despite global economic challenges, we are on track to deliver the declaration promise of delivering 1 million homes in this parliament and implementing reforms to improve the planning system," said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing and Housing. "Our landmark Tenant Reform Bill, which is being passed through Parliament, will provide tenants with greater housing security, while our £11.5 billion investment in the Affordable Housing Programme and £1.2 billion from the Local Government Housing Fund will help build a new generation of affordable housing and social housing".