A BILL giving the Government emergency powers to take operational control of the Chinese-owned steelmaking plant at Scunthorpe moved from approval to Royal Assent in just six-and-a half hours on Saturday, after debates in both Houses of Parliament heard concerns about short- and long-term effects of its closure.
In a statement on Saturday, the Prime Minister said: “Today, my government has stepped in to save British Steel. We’re acting to protect the jobs of thousands of workers and all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry.”
The Chinese company Jingye had estimated the plant to be losing £700,000 a day, and had rejected the Government’s support offer of £500 million. The Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, told MPs, who had been recalled: “It became clear that the intention of Jingye was to refuse to purchase sufficient raw materials to keep the blast furnaces running. In fact, their intention was to cancel and refuse to pay for existing orders. The company would therefore have irrevocably and unilaterally closed down primary steelmaking at British Steel.”
Once cooled, the furnaces would be prohibitively expensive to restart. Supplies of raw materials are sitting at Immingham, awaiting payment from Jingye.
The Conservative MP for Brigg and Immingham, Martin Vickers, said: “I’ve been a resident in the Grimsby-Cleethorpes area all my life, and I’ve seen the impact when a town loses its core industry. When that decline happens, it takes a generation or perhaps more for the town to fully recover. This is the last thing I want to see happen in my neighbouring constituency of Scunthorpe.”
A fifth-generation steelworker had told the Labour MP for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme, Lee Pitcher, that this was about the town’s identity. “British Steel, Scunthorpe, is the beating heart of the area, and over the last few years that beating heart has started to slow. . . With every skip of that beating heart, people lose hope, and we cannot let people lose hope.”
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour) told the Lords: “We will not abandon the hard-working steel-making communities that have given so much to both our economy and country. We do not accept the argument that steel-making has no future in the UK. We know that rebuilding our steel industry brings its fair share of challenges, but we believe that they are worth facing, and that we are more than prepared to overcome them.”
The Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway, said: “At a time of tariffs, threats to jobs, and wider economic uncertainty, it is vital to safeguard the steel industry while transitioning towards a greener future. Production of steel is vital to the well-being and identity of Scunthorpe, a place I am proud to serve as Bishop.”
While welcoming the recent announcement of a new theme park to be built on the site of a former brickworks near Bedford, he reflected: “I note what it says about our economy, which, year by year, seems driven more and more by the delivery of goods and services, especially through entertainment.
“Our economy is changing before our eyes. . . The need for a secure manufacturing base is essential, all the more so given global pressures and the attendant disruption to our economic and political norms.
“My prayers are with the many people who will feel uncertainty and anxiety about the present and the future. They will require a response that is pastoral as well as practical. In our churches, we will seek to respond in love and to share the hope we hold on to, doing so now as we approach the disconsolation of Good Friday and the joy of resurrection on Easter Day.”
Concerns were expressed in both Houses about the wider economic cost. Others took a long view. Lord Fox (Labour) said: “Owning and running a steel business should be a long-term enterprise. It should be measured in decades, not months.
“Steel is not a bit-part player in our industrial economy. If Britain is to have a green and long-term industrial strategy, and if it is to have a defence industrial strategy, it needs steel.”