H2Teesside
Miliband was due to decide whether to give the go ahead to the H2Teesside project at Teesworks. H2Teesside, a blue hydrogen plant, is proposed to be built at The Foundry, part of the former Redcar steelworks.
Why is the Secretary of State involved?
Because H2Teesside is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). The decision over whether to proceed is left to the Secretary of State, under the guidance of the Planning Inspectorate.
Wasn’t this decision due in August?
Miliband was due to make a decision on BP’s application within three months of the Planning Inspectorate’s recommendation, which had been made on 28 May. So, the deadline was 28 August. That day came and went. The following day, Miliband confirmed that a statement would be made to the House of Commons, when it returned after the summer recess on 3 September.
Junior Minister
So, on 3 September junior energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh duly made the statement. Fahnbulleh confirmed that the Secretary of State would be exercising his power under section 107(3) of the Planning Act 2008 to set a new deadline, which would be 30 October. This was “to allow time to request further information.”
D-Day 30 October 2025
The revised deadline arrived, but hopes of a decision were soon to be dashed. There’s been a reshuffle since 3 September, so there was no appearance from Miatta Fahnbulleh this time. On this occasion it was left to Martin McCluskey, the recently appointed Minister for Energy Consumers, to break the news. McCluskey’s statement was identical to Miatta’s, apart from another revised deadline. It’s now 4 December 2025.
So, why the delay?
BP has been planning to build H2Teesside at The Foundry since March 2021. At the time, the company was proposing to manufacture 20% of the UK’s hydrogen there. But it’s been slow progress since then. It took another three years, until 25 March 2024, for BP to apply for a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the project.
Green Hydrogen too
A few months after announcing H2Teesside, BP declared that it would build HyGreen, a green hydrogen plant. This would be sited next to H2Teesside at The Foundry. Between them, these plants would produce 30% of the UK’s hydrogen.
Scaled back ambitions
But, BP has become less ambitious recently. In March 2025, as part of overarching plans to scale back on renewables, it cancelled HyGreen. Two months later, the company leaked to The Telegraph that it was losing interest in H2Teesside too. The project would need to be cancelled in its entirety without further government support.
A knockout blow?
H2Teesside was due to face another serious blow, from a completely different direction. In March 2021, at exactly the same time that Teesworks began working with BP on H2Teesside, it started work on a back-up plan. Teesworks applied to the local authority, Redcar and Cleveland Council (RCBC), for planning permission for a data centre at The Foundry. Outline planning consent was granted in March 2022.
The Foundry
The proposed building layout can be seen in the following extract from the planning application. Teesworks had been working with BP on its H2Teesside plans for the same site for over a year by this stage.
Just Google it
In September 2025, rumours swirled that a large company, rumoured to be Google, wanted to build an AI data centre at The Foundry.
Busy Bees
Teesworks had been busy in the background again. On 3 June 2025, it revisited its outline planning approval for The Foundry, and went back to RCBC with updated plans. These included a detailed data centre plan. DWD, a planning consultancy representing BP, described the plan as “speculative”. Nevertheless, Reserved Matters Approval (RMA) for this project was granted by RCBC on 1 August. That was remarkably quick work from Teesworks and the local authority.
So, is that it for H2Teesside?
Lichfields, Teesworks’ planning consultancy, suggested in its representation over the DCO for H2Teesside that there was “increasing uncertainty in the applicant’s [BP] commitment to and funding for the proposed development”, on 12 September, The Telegraph reported that Keir Starmer has over-ruled Ed Miliband, and decided in favour of the data centre. However, the Commons announcement on 30 October would suggest that Miliband hasn’t given up the fight just yet.
Delayed announcement
Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley Mayor, had hoped to choreograph the announcement of a Teesworks data centre with confirmation that the Tees Valley would be one of the UK’s new AI Growth Zones. The government’s announcement on 17 September of such zones at Blyth in Northumberland and Cobalt Park in North Tyneside, but not in the Tees Valley, must have been a bitter pill to swallow.
Backing two horses
On 24 October, the usually talkative mayor wouldn’t comment on the stalled progress of the Tees Valley AI Growth Zone. It was left to a TVCA spokesperson to give a holding statement. But, for four years, Ben Houchen was one of the loudest proponents of BP’s hydrogen ambitions in the Tees Valley.
Personal guided tour
In July 2021 Houchen gave BP CEO Bernard Looney a personal tour of the Teesworks site. Houchen enthused “Teesside should be spoken of in net zero terms, in the same way Silicon Valley is spoken about”. But it’s now 2025, and there’s a new craze in town, Artificial Intelligence. “Net Zero” sounds so old-fashioned, all of a sudden.
Two Faces
On 11 October 2025, the Mayor completed his volte face on H2Teesside by telling The Times “You’ve got north of £100 billion worth of investment in AI on Teesside, or you’ve got a £600 million hydrogen project. You’ve got a scheme that’s going to create a minimum of 4,000 jobs, or you’ve got a hydrogen project that creates 60 jobs.”
But there’s always a guaranteed winner
Regardless of whichever project is chosen for The Foundry, there’s one surefire winner. Steel River Power Limited will provide the electricity via its private wire network. This will provide another lucrative income stream for Teesworks’ main shareholders, Martin Corney and Chris Musgrave.
Thanks to James Waterson for contributing to this article
