Plans initially set out by failed start-up Britishvolt to build £3.8 billion electric car battery gigafactory in the northeast of England look to have ended after three years.  

The proposed 95-hectare site for the factory is close to being sold to US-based Blackstone Group, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms, which intends to develop the site and build one of the largest data centres in Europe. 

The figure Blackstone is said to have paid for the site has not been publicly disclosed.