A multimillion-pound vaccine plant being built by AstraZeneca is under threat amid reports the Treasury could cut the state aid being offered to support it.
Ministers are said to be considering reducing the amount of state aid for the project on Merseyside by as much as £20m – sparking fears that it could be called off or moved abroad.
The previous chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, reportedly offered around £65m to AstraZeneca to encourage the development of a new facility at its base in Speke, a suburb of Liverpool, where AstraZeneca wants to develop new vaccines.
However, this figure has reportedly been revised down to about £40m amid a review of decisions made by the previous government by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The revision was first reported by the Financial Times.
This has raised fears that the investment could even be moved abroad to France instead, the Financial Times said. One source quoted by the newspaper said there was a “sizeable gap that would certainly threaten the investment”.
AstraZeneca announced the new facility in March as part of wider plans to invest £650m across the UK. This would be split into £450m for the Speke project and a further £200m for Cambridge, where the company plans to hire 1,000 people.
Sir Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s chief executive officer, said at the time its spending spree would “enhance the UK’s pandemic preparedness and demonstrates our ongoing confidence in UK life sciences”.
A spokesman for the Treasury said: “We are committed to making the UK one of the best places in the world to develop and manufacture new and innovative medicines.
“The Chancellor receives regular updates on this planned investment in Speke, and we are in positive discussions with AstraZeneca to support its delivery.”
AstraZeneca declined to comment.