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Weardale Lithium secured grant funding earlier this year and is looking to scale up its operations

The company behind plans to draw valuable lithium deposits from underneath the County Durham countryside has partnered with a college to create the skills necessary for the vision.

Weardale Lithium hopes to use lithium carbonate-rich geothermal waters in the North Pennine Ore Field to extract the material which is critical to battery manufacturing and energy storage. The project – which has secured grant funding from the Government’s Drive35 competition – could create jobs that will require technical skills.

That has led to a partnership with New College Durham, which is already active in the area following the launch of its National Battery Training & Skills Academy (NBTSA) which delivers specialist training in battery technology and prepares learners for careers in electric vehicles, energy storage and advanced manufacturing.

Alison Maynard, deputy principal of New College Durham, said: “This partnership with Weardale Lithium marks an important milestone for both our students and the wider regional economy. By working in close collaboration with industry, we are equipping learners with the advanced technical knowledge and specialist skills required to succeed in a rapidly evolving energy sector, while supporting the development of sustainable, high-value careers across the North East.

“The strength of our curriculum, the depth of our employer partnerships, and our clear focus on future workforce needs have recently been recognised at a national level. We are extremely proud to have been confirmed as one of only four Technical Excellence Colleges for Advanced Manufacturing in the country, an achievement that reflects both the quality of our provision and our commitment to delivering skills that align with industry demand.”

Planning approval was granted last year for Weardale Lithium’s demonstration plant at its Eastgate cement works site. The firm is now looking to scale up its operation and will work with New College Durham on training programmes.

Stewart Dickson, managing director of Weardale Lithium, added: “By connecting education, research and industry, this partnership will play a vital role in ensuring the North East workforce is equipped with the advanced skills needed to support the clean energy sector’s rapid expansion. With significant progress being made locally, including our planned lithium extraction projects in County Durham, the region is quickly emerging as a key contributor to the UK’s critical minerals and battery supply chain.

“Through this collaboration, we are not only responding to immediate skills demands but also helping to build a sustainable talent pipeline that aligns with national priorities around energy security and the development of domestic lithium production. By aligning education with cutting-edge innovation and industrial growth, we are positioning the North East and its workforce at the forefront of the UK’s transition to a low-carbon, high-value economy.”

Ministers are weighing up whether parts of a clampdown on the low-value imports that power Shein and Temu could arrive sooner than planned, after sustained lobbying from British retailers who say the current timetable leaves the high street exposed.

The government confirmed last year that reform of the so-called de minimis regime, which lets goods worth less than £135 enter the UK without customs duties, would not be fully in place until 2029 because of the complexity of building a new customs system from scratch. Now, officials are understood to be examining whether elements of that reform can be brought forward while still keeping goods flowing freely at the border.

The consultation on the design of a replacement system closed in early March, and ministers are still working through the responses. For retailers who have spent the better part of two years arguing that the relief tilts the pitch against them, even that assessment period feels too slow.

The de minimis exemption has become one of the defining battlegrounds in the contest between established British retailers and the fast-growing overseas platforms snapping at their heels. Shein and Temu, both founded in China, have expanded rapidly in Britain by shipping low-cost goods directly from manufacturers to shoppers, sidestepping the duties and overheads that domestic firms shoulder when they import through conventional supply chains.

Names including Sainsbury’s, Currys and AO World have argued that the carve-out hands overseas rivals a structural advantage. It is an argument that has steadily gained volume, with UK retailers calling on the government to end China’s tax-free advantage and warning that the playing field has been tilted for too long.

The government has already said it intends to abolish the exemption, a position set out when Rachel Reeves moved to review the import tax loophole in its crackdown on cheap overseas goods. But it has insisted that a phased transition is needed to avoid disruption at ports and customs checkpoints. Officials say a new system for collecting duties on low-value parcels has to be built, in their words, “from the ground up” to cope with the sheer volume of packages arriving in the country, and that businesses moving and selling food will also need time to prepare. The full design is set out in the Treasury’s consultation on reforming the customs treatment of low-value imports.

The timetable has frustrated retailers, who have stepped up their lobbying in recent months. Last week Andrew Murphy, chief executive of toy seller The Entertainer, wrote to the government urging ministers to accelerate the reforms, describing the current schedule as “unacceptable”.

Industry groups have also warned that Britain risks becoming an outlier as other major economies move faster. The United States scrapped its own low-value import exemption last year, while the European Union is preparing to introduce a temporary customs duty on low-value parcels from next month before bringing in wider reforms, a shift confirmed by the European Commission’s taxation and customs directorate. The fear among executives is that, as doors close elsewhere, more low-cost and potentially unsafe goods will simply be redirected towards the UK, a concern that has already prompted warnings that delay risks turning Britain into a ‘dumping ground’.

The Treasury, for its part, is holding the line on both the destination and the pace. “The rapid growth in low-value imports is hurting our high streets and retailers,” it said. “We are removing the customs duty relief for low-value imports and reforming the way these goods are declared into the UK to ensure all goods are appropriately controlled.

“This is a significant reform which backs our businesses to compete and grow, controls safety and flow of goods at our border, and keeps the UK in line with our international partners.”

For Britain’s retailers, the principle is now settled. The fight, increasingly, is over the clock.

Jamie Young

Jamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
Jamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.

When not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders.

Available for over a year

The US economy backs Elon Musk’s vision for sending people to Mars, the moon and beyond with SpaceX. Elon Musk’s rocket, telecommunications and artificial intelligence company SpaceX has listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange with a value of $2.2 trillion; making him the world’s first trillionaire in the process. Other AI companies, including Open AI and Anthropic have plans to follow suit but what does that mean for the US economy and global financial stability?
In this episode, Justin speaks to Ryan Mac – an investigative technology reporter for the New York Times who has extensive experience covering Elon Musk and other leaders in the AI field. SpaceX’s public valuation has made millionaires of many of its past and current employees and generated around $85 billion for the company; money that Elon Musk says is essential to fulfill the company’s plans to build bases on the Moon, put data centres into orbit and send human beings to Mars. But what happens if those plans remain unfulfilled?
As more companies offer shares to investors and the general public, Justin and Ryan explore whether America is gambling on the promise of AI? And is the US economy becoming dangerously reliant on one industry?

HOSTS:
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter

GUEST:
• Ryan Mac – New York Times investigative technology correspondent

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The Nifty IT index plunged to 26,634.50 on Friday, the lowest level seen by the sectoral index since April 2023. It is currently the top sectoral loser on the market today. Infosys shares led losses, crashing nearly 9%, while those of TCS, Mphasis, LTI Mindtree, Tech Mahindra, Persistent Systems and HCL Tech tumbled 4-6%.

This follows an 11% crash in Accenture’s share price on Wall Street after the consulting major revised its FY26 revenue growth guidance to 3-4%, compared with its earlier outlook of 3-5%. The company also projected fourth-quarter revenue of $17.75-18.4 billion, falling below Street expectations of $18.47 billion, according to LSEG data.

Accenture’s softer outlook may have retriggered worries that enterprises remain cautious on discretionary spending related to IT consulting and digital transformation projects, even as investments in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity continue. Indian IT companies derive a major portion of their revenue from the US economy. Hence, worries around reduced discretionary spending may have led to the sharp selloff in the stocks on Dalal Street.

Also read: TCS, Infosys, Wipro, other IT stocks crash up to 9% as Accenture lowers FY26 guidance

The sharp sell-off in Accenture overnight is the kind of move that confirms rather than introduces what has been a slowly building structural reality, said Harshal Dasani, Business head at INVasset PMS. “The Nifty IT index falling 6% is the predictable read-through. The valuation story is now the more uncomfortable conversation. Indian IT services trading at 16-18 times earnings with single-digit revenue growth expectations is expensive, not cheap,” he added.

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The honest framing is that traditional IT services is increasingly looking like a sunset business in its current form, according to Dasani. “The stance on Indian IT remains firmly cautious. Selective interest stays reserved for credible AI-native and hyperscaler-aligned firms; the broader sector deserves significantly lower multiple expectations,” he added.
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments, however differed in his opinion, saying that buying in IT stocks can emerge at lower levels since valuations are becoming attractive after the sharp correction.Also read: Why Accenture’s warning sparked a Rs 1.35 lakh crore meltdown for TCS, Infosys, other IT stocks

Key technical levels to watch out for Nifty IT

The Nifty IT Index plunged over 6%, breaking below its previous swing low of 27,078 recorded on May 14. Technically, the index is trading below its key short and long-term moving averages, said Sudeep Shah, Head of Technical and Derivatives Research at SBI Securities.

He highlighted that the index’s RSI has slipped below 40, signaling increasing bearish momentum, while the DI- has crossed above DI+ on the ADX indicator, highlighting strong seller dominance. The 27,450–27,500 zone is expected to act as a key resistance and the trend is likely to remain bearish as long as the index stays below this zone, according to the analyst.

Also read: Why is market falling today?

(With inputs from agencies)

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

John Roberts does not do diplomatic. The founder and chief executive of AO World has rounded on the government after the online appliances retailer confirmed it is shifting the bulk of its customer contact operation to South Africa, a move he laid squarely at the door of higher employment taxes and a rising minimum wage.

The company, best known for selling everything from laptops to fridges and washing machines, has already offshored around 150 sales roles, banking savings of roughly £2 million so far and pointing to annualised cost reductions of about £4 million. A further 50 jobs are due to be created in South Africa, with most of AO World’s customer contact work expected to be based overseas by next March.

Roberts, who built the business from a £1 pub bet in 2000, said the retailer was carrying an extra £8.5 million in annual costs after the government’s decision last April to lift employer national insurance contributions and push through an above-inflation increase to the minimum wage.

“The brutal truth is that, of course, these roles could have been in the UK,” he said. “When you make these staff ever more expensive and ever more inflexible, that’s what businesses are going to do. We’ve got a political class that doesn’t understand business. They live in an economic fantasy land.”

It is a complaint that will resonate well beyond Bolton. The combined weight of a 15 per cent employer national insurance rate and a sharply lower secondary threshold, introduced in April 2025 alongside a 6.7 per cent rise in the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour, has reshaped the maths for any firm with a large, lower-paid workforce. AO World is simply one of the larger names to act on it, joining the likes of Morrisons, which has blamed Labour’s “policy choices” for a wave of store closures, and JCB, which paused a 500-job hiring drive as the tax changes bit.

For smaller employers the squeeze is arguably sharper still, with the lower threshold dragging part-time and entry-level roles into charge for the first time. Guidance from the government-owned British Business Bank underlines how tightly wage floors and payroll taxes now interact, a dynamic Business Matters has tracked as employers absorb a national insurance bill running billions of pounds above Treasury forecasts.

Yet the political broadside lands on a set of results most chief executives would happily own. On an adjusted basis, pre-tax profit rose a better-than-expected 16.1 per cent to a record £50.5 million in the year to 31 March, helped by a turnaround at the contract mobile phone arm and at MusicMagpie, the used-electronics specialist acquired in 2024. Revenue climbed 11.4 per cent to £1.3 billion, also ahead of expectations, with a 17 per cent jump in television sales in May as shoppers geared up for the football World Cup.

The board rewarded investors accordingly, unveiling a £10 million special dividend and confirming plans to return a further £20 million this year, split evenly between another special dividend and a fresh share buyback. The numbers vindicate the “pivot to profitability” Roberts has pursued since the pandemic-era online boom faded, a period in which AO’s shares were battered by wobbling consumer confidence, rising labour costs and fierce competition.

That reset has been deliberate. Roberts has spent recent years taking what he calls “the grit out of the machine”, stripping out costs and simplifying the group after it considered shutting its loss-making mobile division and, in 2022, closed its German operation following a strategic review. The post-pay mobile business is now profitable after improved commercial terms with network partners and expanded tie-ups with Samsung and Lebara, while analysts at Peel Hunt flagged a return to profit at MusicMagpie.

The wider picture is one of a business in rude health. AO World, a constituent of the FTSE 250, added 720,000 new customers over the year to take its base to 13.3 million, and has wiped out its debt, swinging to £16.4 million in net funds from liabilities of around £35.9 million a year earlier.

Investors, though, were unmoved on the day. Shares gave up an early gain of 2.6 per cent to close down 4.69 per cent, or 4½p, at 91½p, with the stock off roughly 3 per cent amid heightened geopolitical tensions since February.

Management, too, struck a note of caution, warning that the external environment remained “uncertain, with ongoing geopolitical pressures impacting both consumers and input costs across the economy”. Profit for the 2027 financial year is expected to come in around £54.6 million, broadly flat on the year.

For now, the headline AO World would rather you remembered is the record profit. The one its founder wants ringing in ministers’ ears is the 200 jobs that, on his telling, did not have to leave Britain at all.

Amy Ingham

Amy is a newly qualified journalist specialising in business journalism at Business Matters with responsibility for news content for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.