A former soap factory in Warrington that once defined the town is being turned into an artificial intelligence data centre, an example the Prime Minister has seized on to make the case for Britain's place in a new technology era. In a speech, he pointed to the site as a sign of how communities once left behind can be remade. The transformation, he argued, offers a glimpse of an emerging revolution in technology.
For centuries, Warrington stood at the forefront of Britain's soap-making industry. Until a few years ago, a Unilever factory was its epicentre, a place where generations of local people worked and around which families built their lives. For more than 130 years, the smell of soap from the factory was a familiar part of daily life in the town.
Then the factory closed. For many people in Warrington, the shuttered site became a symbol of a community that had been left behind, its main employer gone and its sense of identity diminished. The loss was felt across the generations who had depended on it for their livelihoods.
Now, according to the Prime Minister, that same factory is being transformed into a new AI data centre. The project is expected to bring in fresh investment, create new skilled jobs and open up opportunities for a younger generation growing up in the town. Where there was once decline, he suggested, young people can now see what their community might become.
Warrington is not the only place undergoing such a shift. The Prime Minister said there are similar stories across the country, pointing to Lanarkshire, Liverpool and Leeds. Each, he argued, speaks to the same possibility, a technology revolution with the potential to transform lives, strengthen communities and create opportunities right across the country.
He also set out the scale of Britain's position in the sector. The country, he said, is the third largest technology economy in the world, and its start-ups have raised close to half of all European tech investment this year. That standing, he argued, is no accident, but an endorsement of British talent and industry and of the approach the country has taken.