Saving British Steel leaves taxpayers with £900m bill June 25, 2025 The government’s decision to take emergency control of British Steel is poised to cost the taxpayer just short of £1bn, according to initial government estimates, sparking warnings from opposition politicians that the Chancellor’s narrow fiscal headroom is in jeopardy. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) expects the public finances to suffer a £900m hit from [...]
British Steel secures £500m contract with Network Rail June 17, 2025 British Steel has won a £500m contract with Network Rail in a deal that helps secure the future of its Scunthorpe steelworks. The agreement will see British Steel supply up to 80,000 tonnes of rail per year to the body which manages the UK’s railway infrastructure, around 80 per cent of the track it needs. [...]
British Steel braces for fresh Trump tariff blow June 3, 2025 The British steel industry is gearing up for the hammer blow of fresh US tariffs after Downing Street could not confirm that steelmakers would be exempt from the levies. The UK government unveiled a trade deal with the US last month, under which metal exports would be exempted from punitive tariffs. But negotiations on the [...]
ONS set to weigh up cost to public purse of British Steel rescue April 29, 2025 The UK’s official statistics body has begun an assessment of the cost of running British Steel since the loss-making business was rescued by the government, City AM can reveal, in what could prove to be another blow to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ fiscal targets. The UK’s top statistician Professor Sir Ian Diamond said the Office for [...]
Fuel for blast furnaces and iron ore supplies arrive at British Steel April 27, 2025 Steelworkers at Scunthorpe have been given a more certain future with the arrival of new raw materials to operate British Steel’s blast furnaces, ministers have announced. 55,000 tonnes of blast furnace coke have arrived in the UK to fuel the Scunthorpe plant in North Lincolnshire, and a shipment of more than 66,000 tonnes of iron ore pellets and 27,000 [...]
Fuel for blast furnaces and iron ore supplies arrive at British Steel April 27, 2025 Steelworkers at Scunthorpe have been given a more certain future with the arrival of new raw materials to operate British Steel’s blast furnaces, ministers have announced. 55,000 tonnes of blast furnace coke have arrived in the UK to fuel the Scunthorpe plant in North Lincolnshire, and a shipment of more than 66,000 tonnes of iron [...]
British Steel cancels mass redundancy plans April 22, 2025 Thousands of steel workers have breathed a sigh of relief after the threat of mass redundancies was withdrawn following a government decision to put British Steel into public ownership. China-based Jingye, the Scunthorpe plant’s former owner, said last month it was consulting on up to 2,700 job losses after it rejected a £500m subsidy from [...]
Scunthorpe needs private investment more than state support April 22, 2025 We’ve heard a lot about nationalising British Steel but a lot less about how to unlock the growth and private investment that can help towns like Scunthorpe stand on their own two feet, says Emma Revell The first broadcast interview I ever did was about steel. It was 2019, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were [...]
After British Steel, what else will the government nab for national security? April 21, 2025 The potential nationalisation of British Steel in the name of 'national security' must make us ask what the government will justify next, writes Eliot Wilson.
Week in Business: Labour’s jobs madness as employers urge change of plan April 17, 2025 Business Secretary Johnny Reynolds was so fed up with people criticising him for never having run a business that he bought himself a whopping great steel mill in Scunthorpe. Now firmly a member of the boss class, will he have sympathy with the business chiefs who this week begged the government to rip up their [...]