Government expects to lose money running British Steel, says business secretary – UK politics live
Government expects to lose money running British Steel – business secretary
Reynolds has also been speaking to Sky News’ Sunday Morning programme with Trevor Phillips. He has been asked how much it may cost the taxpayer if the government takes ownership and control of British Steel.
Reynolds said the government expects to lose money running British Steel, but allowing it to collapse would have cost £1bn. There still has been no confirmation of plans to nationalise the plant in Scunthorpe but public ownership is looking increasingly likely.
Speaking to Sky News, Reynolds said:
The losses, the annual losses, net losses, in the last set of accounts were £233m. Actually, that can be improved upon, but I am accepting your point that we would expect to lose money on this.
I would ask the public to compare that to the option of spending a lot more money to reach a deal that would have seen a lot of job losses and Jingye remain as a partner.
Or the cost of the complete collapse of British Steel, easily over £1bn in terms of the need to respond from government, to remediate the land, to look after the workforce.
The business secretary said that, as money had already been set aside for the steel industry at the budget, the government would not need to borrow more as a result of the takeover.
He added: “To be absolutely frank, I think supporting British Steel at this time, in that way, is better than spending a greater deal of money on the complete loss of the business or in a transition deal.”
Jingye still owns the site in Scunthorpe, but the steel industry bill published on Saturday gives the government the power to instruct steel companies in England to keep facilities open, with criminal penalties for executives if they fail to comply.
Key events
Laura Kuenssberg asks Jonathan Reynolds why the government was so slow in passing the emergency laws to save British Steel (when weeks ago – on 25 March – British Steel said it might have to close the furnaces).
Q:“Why did you let it get to this Thursday when the coal is about to run out that you actually made this decision?”
A:
Because I don’t think in any job, in any role in government, you take emergency powers of the scale that happened yesterday until you have that emergency situation.
We have been negotiating in good faith. We have been expecting, as I think is reasonable, an economically rational partner on the other side.
When that became evident that that was not possible that required the kind of significant, dramatic emergency action which was taken yesterday.
For some context: Reynolds has accused British Steel’s Chinese owners, Jingye, of failing to negotiate “in good faith” after it decided to stop buying enough raw materials to keep the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe going.
Opening Saturday’s debate, Reynolds said Labour had been engaged in negotiations with Jingye since the party came to power last July, and had offered “substantial” support.
The government recently said it offered to buy the necessary raw materials for the blast furnaces but this had been met with a counter-offer from Jingye demanding “an excessive amount” of support.
Reynolds said yesterday:
Over the last few days, it became clear that the intention of Jingye was to refuse to purchase sufficient raw material 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 steel-making at British Steel.
All would have been lost without emergency legislation being passed – business secretary
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds is being questioned by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on her Sunday politics programme.
He said the intervention yesterday was “dramatic” but was needed to secure Britain’s “economic security” . He said if nothing was done the blast furnaces and steel production in the UK “would have gone”. His officials are on site right now, the business secretary added.
Kuenssberg pressed the minister, asking him if he was sure if he would have the supplies he needed to keep the furnaces at the plant burning. Reynolds refused to be drawn on the commercial specifics.
“Without the decisive action by the government yesterday all was lost,” Reynolds insisted.
Why does British Steel need to be rescued by the government?
My colleague Philip Inman has written a useful explainer on why British Steel – a major supplier to construction firms and Network Rail – needed to be rescued by the government and explores what the next steps may be, with nationalisation looking increasingly likely. Here is an extract from his piece:
Ministers wanted to develop an industrial strategy – that includes domestically produced steel – before allocating any cash to individual sectors. But the crisis at British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant brought forward a decision about what kind of steel industry the UK needs.
The plant, which is the last remaining maker of mass-produced virgin steel in England and makes a range of products, from girders for the building sector to train tracks, needs raw materials within the next fortnight, including iron pellets and coking coal, or else it faces the prospect of the furnaces cooling to a point where it is neither easy nor cost-effective to bring them back.
The new legislation, approved by parliament on Saturday, will prevent mass redundancies and manage a transition from blast-furnace-produced steel to electric arc furnaces, which can run on renewable energy.
Business secretary gives instructions to British Steel after emergency law is passed to keep it operating
Good morning and welcome back to our rolling coverage of UK politics.
An emergency bill aimed at saving British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant became law yesterday after MPs and peers were recalled from recess to participate in a Saturday sitting for the first time in decades.
They had approved the emergency legislation without opposition, giving the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, the power to require British Steel to keep the Scunthorpe plant going after talks with its Chinese owner, Jingye, broke down.
It has, for now, prevented the imminent collapse of the steelworks and the loss of thousands of jobs.
A government source confirmed to the PA agency that Reynolds had given directions to Jingye after the sitting yesterday, but did not specify what those directions were.
Jingye had said the plant was “no longer financially sustainable” and was losing about £700,000 a day.
While there is general cross party consensus over the government’s move to take control of British Steel, the Conservatives said ministers should have acted sooner, with the shadow leader of the house Alex Burghart accusing the government of making “a total pig’s breakfast of this whole arrangement”.
Saturday’s legislation stopped short of fully nationalising British Steel, instead allowing Reynolds to instruct the company to maintain the blast furnaces, keep staff employed and continue to buy the raw materials needed to make steel, with criminal penalties for executives if they refuse.
Although ministers still hope to secure private sector investment to save the plant, there are no companies offering to take it on and the business secretary conceded to MPs that public ownership was “the likely option”.
It is Yohannes Lowe here with you today. Please do email me on yohannes.lowe@theguardian.com if you spot any typos or omissions.
