Government to take over Speciality Steel UK in move set to cost £350m
Speciality Steel employs around 1,300 workers, many of whom have been put on furlough with reduced wages (Alamy/PA) Anna Wise 5 minutes ago The Government is planning to take over Speciality Steel UK in a move set to cost around £350 million, after a private sector bid failed to secure its backing.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the Government would work towards the “public acquisition” of the UK’s third-largest steelworks.
Mr Reynolds said a bidder had come forward to take over SSUK earlier this year, reported to be Norwegian firm Blastr Green Steel, but the Government could not support it and was instead developing its own proposal.
Blastr said it was not told in advance about the Government’s decision and that it had developed a “fully-funded proposal at no cost to the British taxpayer”.
SSUK was placed into the control of the state’s Official Receiver last August, after it was forced to liquidate by the High Court.
Mr Reynolds said he expected the process of bringing it into public ownership to take around four to six months.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds made the announcement (David Parry/PA) PA Wire He said the Government would “have to pay off the creditors”, acquire the assets and “inject some working capital over a period between one and three years”.
The Business Secretary continued: “I would anticipate the cost of that to be around £350 million.”
Asked by Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper “where that money might come from”, Mr Reynolds replied the Government had not yet spent “the lion’s share” of £2.5 billion set aside for the steel industry, pledged in Labour’s 2024 manifesto.
Mr Reynolds said there was “nothing ideological” about the decision to acquire SSUK, adding: “I want this to be run in the private sector. That is my ideal.”
Speciality Steel employs about 1,300 people, many of whom have been put on furlough with reduced wages.
Production at the business, which runs sites across Stocksbridge and Rotherham in South Yorkshire, and Wednesbury in the West Midlands, has been on pause in recent months.
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