PLANS for a £350m new drugs facility which would create hundreds of jobs in Ulverston are being "revisited", the Evening Mail can exclusively reveal.

GSK announced its plans to build a state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical facility in Ulverston in March 2012, with the-then prime minister David Cameron describing the investment as a “huge boost to the area” during a visit to the North Lonsdale Road site.

Plans to build a new facility were first revealed in 2009 after the government outlined pre-budget proposals to cut tax by more than 60 per cent on profits from UK patents.

Glaxo shortlisted four potential sites for the biopharm plant in December 2009, with Ulverston eventually being selected despite stiff competition from Barnard Castle in the North East and Montrose and Irvine in Scotland.

Construction work on the site of the new plant began in Ulverston last year with the work due to be completed within six years.

However, GSK has now confirmed its plans are being revisited after being approached by the Evening Mail for an update on the development.

In October, GSK said it remained "committed to building a new facility at Ulverston" but the company has now confirmed that "developments in the business" have led to the plans being revisited and that an announcement is due in the first half of 2017.

In a statement responding to the Evening Mail's queries about a possible scaling-down of the new Ulverston facility, a spokeswoman for GSK said: "We appreciate the appetite for information on progress at our new Ulverston site, which will be a strategic biotechnology investment in the UK.

"We are revisiting some of our planning assumptions for the site to reflect developments in the business. We expect to share more news in the first half of 2017."

In September, GSK appointed a new chief executive - Barrow-born Emma Walmsley, who is due to take the helm from Sir Andrew Witty from April of next year.

GSK's "revisiting" of its plans has led to Barrow and Furness MP John Woodcock to call for an urgent meeting with the drugs firm's senior management team.

Mr Woodcock said: "I am looking forward to being updated as soon as possible on any changes to their plans but it is important that we continue to emphasise the remarkable opportunity which the new development brings to the area and remember that this is the first manufacturing facility to be constructed in the UK by this global company for more than 30 years.

"It is happening in Ulverston because of the incredible workforce which fought off several other locations in the UK."