Put another record on
On 15 June 2026, Tees Valley Lithium (TVL) produced an impact report on its proposed refinery at Billingham. TVL is just the latest outfit to promise a £1bn boost for the Tees Valley. Here are just a few examples that have been announced over the past few years:
- October 2017: Teesworks to insert £1bn per year into the local economy. Just you wait.
- December 2020: Teesworks to insert £1bn per year into the local economy. Never mind what we said three years ago – we really mean it this time.
- November 2023: £1bn Tees Valley boost will include repair of the Transporter Bridge.
- January 2024: £1bn transport boost – Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen’s re-election campaign launch.
- June 2025: £1bn transport boost – the same one that was announced in January 2024.
- April 2026: £1bn local transport plan – see above.
So what is the latest £1bn Tees Valley boost?
TVL’s £1bn boost promises 1,700 jobs, with locals preferred, including an apprenticeship scheme. So, we’ve heard loads of £1bn boosts that came to nothing. But this name sounds familiar.
Guess what? TVL has made these promises before
The company first announced plans for a Tees Valley site in November 2022. It agreed the terms of a 30-year lease with Sembcorp Energy UK for a plant at Wilton International, near Redcar. Wilton is part of Teesside Freeport.
Moving out
But, on 21 February 2026, TVL turned its attention to an “ideal” alternative in Billingham, because it can buy land there, rather than lease the Wilton plot. Back in November 2022, the company had claimed that one of the key benefits of location at Wilton would be that it’s located within Teesside Freeport. But, by February 2026, the company had abandoned its lease with Sembcorp and decided that the freeport wasn’t so beneficial after all. The new Billingham site is outside of the boundary of the freeport.
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Grandiose plans
TVL’s impact report states that it will produce 25,000 tonnes of battery grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) annually, reducing the UK and European battery supply chain’s dependence on China. This gives the impression that the lithium will be sourced locally. There’s been a lot of hype about mining lithium in the Wear Valley. Weardale Lithium Limited has tangible assets of £360, so it may need a cash injection before it can mine any lithium. In 2022, TVL stated that lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate would be sourced from “imported high grade feedstock from South America and lithium producers located in Australia and elsewhere”. The supply chains seem a bit vague.
Cash squeeze
But how much cash is available to build the Billingham lithium refinery? A search for Tees Valley Lithium Limited at Companies House reveals pretty much a one-man outfit, run by Paul Atherley. The latest “small company” accounts, for the year ending 31 January 2025, reveal zero income, current assets of £5,233 and current liabilities of £3,336,573. The accounts for the year to 31 January 2026 aren’t due to be published until October.
Tees Valley what?
And who can forget Paul Atherley’s Tees Valley Graphite Limited, which was going to make anodes for battery cells at a facility at Wilton. It would have imported graphite from Mozambique.
A dormant company
Tees Valley Graphite filed accounts for a dormant company in August 2025. Another Teesside Freeport success story? I’ve got a bad feeling about this. Paul Atherley’s companies are run under an umbrella company known as Alkemy Capital Investments plc, no doubt a play on the word ‘alchemy’. People can draw their own conclusions about the significance of that name.
That’s a bold statement
Meanwhile, TVL says the Billingham refinery is projected to generate £11.20 of benefit to the UK economy for every pound of capital investment. Okay, we’ll put this project on the list with the rest of the £1bn Tees Valley boosts, and let’s see what has become of it another four years down the line.
Tees Valley Wealth Fund
Will TVL ever make a contribution to the Tees Valley Wealth Fund (TVWF)? The TVWF, Ben Houchen’s latest distraction from the activities of the Teesworks joint venture partners, will store the riches amassed from the Teesworks project. Apart from the ones extracted by a handful of millionaires, obviously. “Over the next decade, a series of multi-billion-pound developments are forecast to generate hundreds of millions of pounds in tax revenues for Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool”. So, when we come back to the TVWF in 2036, will it be a £1bn Tees Valley boost, or will it be filing accounts for a small company?
