The refurbished Welsh factory that cost the taxpayer millions but just sits empty

Just off the Heads of the Valleys road on the Rassau Industrial Estate there sits an unused building. It is massive. About 180,000 square feet.

When you walk in it looks like a brand-new factory. And that is because it basically is. It is fitted out to produce high-end sports cars.

The factory just north of Ebbw Vale, which used to be the Techboard factory building, cost £4.75m in 2017 with an additional £7m spent fitting out the building for production of luxury cars. But it is quiet and unused.

READ MORE: The empty car park that shows just how difficult solving Wales’ M4 problem is

READ MORE: How to sign up to a brand new newsletter that help you understand Wales better

If you are curious about why a building that has had over £11m invested in it is doing nothing you should be. You should probably be angry because you are paying for it.

Back in 2017 the Welsh Government bought the building and spent millions more doing it up because automotive company TVR had said they planned to start building their new V8-engined Griffith car at the site. The Welsh Government were beside themselves with delight at bringing 200 highly skilled jobs to part of south Wales (though the figure seems to have oscillated between 200 and 150).

The then First Minister Carwyn Jones said it “sends out a strong, clear message that Wales is the location of choice for advanced manufacturing” as well as “illustrating that our pro-business approach is delivering results, attracting significant investment, and creating high-quality jobs and it is another huge boost for Wales, for our automotive sector, and for our skilled workforce”.

If you were a person living in Blaenau Gwent at the time you would have been feeling pretty optimistic about the future of the area. Not only was this factory in the offering with big government backing but just down the road was going to be the home of the £325m Circuit of Wales racetrack which promised 6,000 jobs (though diligence investigations concluded there would only be around 115 jobs if the first phase went ahead). Indeed it was the potential for the track that contributed to TVR selecting this location for the factory.

But now fast forward to the start of 2024 and the factory sits empty while the Circuit of Wales plans are likely rotting in landfill after being dumped at the nearby New Vale Recycling Centre. Also never likely to be recovered is the £7.35m the Welsh Government provided in the form of a loan to the Heads of the Valleys Development Company Ltd to enable the company to develop the circuit project.

The inability to get the Ebbw Vale factory up and running is pretty astounding when you consider that the Welsh Government not only bought the site and fitted it out but also provided the project with an additional £2m loan (which was subsequently repaid with interest) and also bought a £500,000 equity stake in the company. But in early December 2023 councillors in Blaenau Gwent were told by the Welsh Government that TVR’s exclusive rights to the facility had lapsed and that it will now be offered to other parties.

The Welsh Government has appointed Cardiff-based property advisory firm Cooke & Arkwrght to market its factory to other potential occupiers but has said it continues to talk to TVR. WalesOnline has previously reported that TVR chairman Lee Edgar had sought to raise £25m through a corporate bond on the Dublin exchange to start production in Ebbw Vale but this fell well short of the target.

So what does this mean for the taxpayer?

We can only do rough estimates here but the Western Mail business editor Sion Barry suggested that if a new tenant for the factory could be secured it would likely only generate in the region of £700,000 to £750,000 a year if it was fully let. By keeping ownership of the factory, and even after taking into account future rental uplifts, it would still take years for the Welsh Government to get to a break-even point on its TVR investment.

This is not the first time the Welsh Government has spent a lot of money on a project that would just sit empty. This story about a car park in Monmouthshire is very similar.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “TVR identified a Welsh Government-owned property in Ebbw Vale as its preferred location for its car production facility in Wales. The refurbishment of the property is now complete and represents a fantastic opportunity for any business to acquire a modern manufacturing facility in the region. We have recently appointed a property agent to market the property though we will continue to engage with TVR.”