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The British government has published a bill which will give ministers sweeping powers to take control of any steel active ingredient deemed to close.
Sideurgical companies or managers who do not comply with government orders could be fined or prison for two years, according to a bill This will be debated by deputies in parliament on Saturday. The deputies have been recalled to save the SCUTHORPE factory of British Steel from imminent closure With the loss of 3,500 jobs.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said on Friday that emergency legislation would allow ministers to take control of the site in Lincolnshire and prevent its Chinese owner from closing its stove highs, the last two in the United Kingdom.
High government officials said Jingye, who bought British Steel in 2020, had been willing to let the two high stoves close, essentially putting them out of action forever.
The ministers had interviews with Jingye this week to maintain production after the Chinese company said that the ovens were no longer “financially viable”.
The two parties, however, remained dead end despite the government which offers to pay the raw materials necessary to operate the ovens. Affairs Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the government had not been left with any option “to act”.
The 10 -page bill will give the government the power to ask steel companies to operate the assets and take up these assets if companies do not comply with these instructions.
The bill also provides for a remuneration regime for the costs incurred by a company.
The Secretary of State for Affairs “can do everything in order to obtain the continuous and safe use of the specified assets that the steel company, or any person concerned in relation to this company, could do”, according to the bill.
The Minister of Industry, Sarah Jones, said that the deputies were faced with a choice between adopting the government’s bill or seeing the end of the Steel primary in the United Kingdom.
She told Sky News: “If the high stoves are unforeseen, they can never be reopened, steel simply solidifies in these ovens and nothing can be done.”
Maintaining Great Britain steel has become a strategic priority for the government, which has set aside 2.5 billion pounds sterling to support the sector.
Starmer’s government is also developing an industrial strategy to support the crucial sectors and is particularly concerned about the threat to the steel rate of the US president Donald Trump on the world’s 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports.
