British Steel
(2 days, 9 hours ago)
Written StatementsRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Minister for Industry (Sarah Jones)
The Government committed to updating Parliament on British Steel every four weeks for the duration of the period of special measures being applied under the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025.
As the Chancellor set out at spending review on 11 June, this Government faced a choice in April: to let British Steel collapse, or to intervene. We were not prepared to tolerate a situation in which Britain’s steel capacity was critically undermined, or to see another community with a deep industrial heritage lose the pride, prosperity and dignity that industry provides. We are proud of our decision to intervene to save British Steel in Scunthorpe, and the jobs that come with it.
Since my last written ministerial statement on British Steel on 20 May, I have written to several Members to respond to further questions. Work continues to develop an impact assessment and bring forward regulations under section 7 of the Act, which allow the Secretary of State to introduce a compensation scheme for steel undertakings that have received a notice under the Act. We are committed to facilitating ongoing scrutiny of the Government’s use of these powers and, to that end, the Secretary of State has replied to correspondence from the Chair of the Business and Trade Committee, and Baroness Jones will shortly write to the Lords Constitution Committee in response to their report entitled “Fast-track legislation and the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025”, published on 8 May.
Our intervention in British Steel under the Act has enabled the company to continue to operate two blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, and we have secured sufficient supplies of raw materials to maintain this asset configuration for the coming months. As hon. Members are aware, the redundancy consultation initiated by British Steel’s owners, Jingye, was cancelled shortly after the Government’s legislative intervention, removing the immediate risk to 2,700 jobs, and I am pleased to confirm that British Steel is now seeking to enrol its first apprentices in over 3 years. More than 200 people have applied to become British Steel apprentices as the business seeks to develop its next generation of engineers and technical experts, all based in Scunthorpe.
I am also delighted that British Steel, the UK’s only manufacturer of rail, has secured a new £500 million long-term supply contract with Network Rail. The 5-year agreement has an option to extend for a further 3 years and ensures that British Steel retains its position as principal supplier to Network Rail, the organisation which operates and maintains Britain’s rail infrastructure. British Steel will deliver between 70,000 and 80,000 tonnes of rail a year, all manufactured at Scunthorpe.
Government officials continue to work onsite in Scunthorpe, supporting British Steel’s management team. Our priorities remain continuing production, stabilising operations and remedying critical health and safety issues. Since the Government took control of operations, significant progress has been made to improve safety standards.
We recognise the ongoing interest from Members across both Houses regarding the funding that will be required for the Scunthorpe site. The position remains that all funding will be drawn from existing budgets, within the spending envelope set out by the Government at spring statement 2025. As the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have made clear, the UK's fiscal rules are non-negotiable.
To date, we have provided approximately £100 million for working capital. This covers items such as raw materials, salaries, and addressing unpaid bills, including for SMEs in the supply chain. This does not take into account future revenue. As previously confirmed, the Department for Business and Trade’s accounts for 2025-26 will reflect the financial support that the Department has given to British Steel.
As spending review 2025 has highlighted, this Government are investing for the long-term future of UK steel—from £500 million for Tata Steel in Port Talbot to new nuclear-grade capacity at Sheffield Forgemasters—and we will invest in Scunthorpe’s long-term future. However, we have been clear that there also needs to be private investment to modernise British Steel. Work continues at pace to develop the optimal policy and strategy approach, and we are working closely with Jingye to inform that process.
[HCWS723]
Government Funding for Sport
(2 days, 9 hours ago)
Written StatementsRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Lisa Nandy)
Sport plays an integral part in our national identity—it brings communities together through physical activity, provides moments of national unity and celebration, and supports growth through investment in our cities, towns and villages. In short, sport and physical activity allow us to showcase the best of our country on a global stage. That is why this Government are committing over £900 million of investment into major sporting events and grassroots facilities over this spending review period, supporting our plan for change.
This funding will provide investment in events that captivate global audiences, strengthen the UK’s position as a world leader in sport, and support our mission to kick-start economic growth by creating jobs, driving regional prosperity and encouraging visitors to the UK. The investment in grassroots facilities will ensure that everyone who wants to participate in sport and physical activity will have the opportunity to be active—ensuring a healthier nation, reducing barriers to opportunity and bringing communities together. It will see more than £500 million committed to supporting the delivery of a host of world-class sporting events being held in the UK over the coming years, including:
The men’s and women’s Tour de France Grand Départ in 2027
The men’s 2028 UEFA European Football Championship—alongside Ireland
The European Athletics Championships 2026 in Birmingham.
These events will deliver significant economic benefits, with Euro 2028 alone projected to generate up to £2.4 billion in socioeconomic value across all parts of the UK.
Work is also continuing with the home nation football associations and devolved Governments to develop the bid for the UK to host the FIFA women’s world cup in 2035.
Alongside this investment in major sporting events, at least £400 million will be invested in new and upgraded grassroots sport facilities across the UK that support and improve access to better health, active lifestyles, wellbeing and community cohesion. We will prioritise underserved places, working closely with sporting bodies, devolved Government and local leaders to establish what each community needs, and then set out further plans. This will include a stronger focus on removing the barriers for groups such as women and girls, people with disabilities, ethnic minority communities and those in the most deprived neighbourhoods.
This investment will build on the Government funding being delivered this year, which is already helping local clubs and communities build new pitches and changing rooms, and install floodlights, solar panels and goalposts—enabling people of all backgrounds to play a wide range of sports, in communities across every part of the United Kingdom.
This funding demonstrates the Government’s belief in the power of sport—from global events to local facilities—to unite, inspire and improve lives across the country.
[HCWS722]
Fair Funding Review 2.0 and Administration of Council Tax
(2 days, 9 hours ago)
Written StatementsRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Minister for Local Government and English Devolution (Jim McMahon)
This Government were elected on a manifesto to fix the foundations local government so that taxpayers can once again rely on strong and reliable local services. After 14 years of service cuts and managed decline by the previous Government, councils across the country were on their knees. We are committed to delivering ambitious funding reform for local government based on need, alongside a renewed focus on prevention to get ahead of overwhelming pressures in adult social care, children’s services and temporary accommodation. We will work closely with the sector to reset local government so that it is fit, legal and decent and can once again reliably deliver for our communities. Today, we take the next step in our plan to ensure that local leaders have the systems and resources they need to deliver for their residents.
Too many areas have felt the combined impact of reducing Government support and low historical tax bases from which to raise income, coupled with high levels of need driving up demand for services. It is not fair that people in these places too often see hikes in council tax bills while neighbourhood services, which make areas clean, safe and decent, have felt the brunt of reductions. The current funding system is a decade old and reinforces the divide between deprived places and the rest of the country, and that is why we are taking action where previous Government failed. But this is not just about making the overall funding system fairer, this is also about making everyday life fairer for taxpayers too. This is a new settlement for councils and council taxpayers alike.
We took our first steps to reform local government funding through the local government finance settlement 2025-26, and today we are publishing a consultation on the next stage of our plans. As part of this, the formulae used to assess local authorities’ current needs, which are a decade out of date, will be updated to target money where it needs to go and ensure those places that have been overlooked get their fair share.
We will simplify the system and give security with multi-year settlements, reduce the vast range of small grants into simplified larger consolidated pots—scrapping bureaucracy and unnecessary reporting—and radically scale back wasteful competitive bidding. This will make funding more efficient, deliver better value for money for taxpayers and provide certainty to councils, turning the tide on micro-management from the centre, so that councils can spend their time and resources on services for local people, not filling out forms to satisfy central Government.
We will take decisive action to modernise the council tax system. This Government recognise that the administration of council tax has been left largely unchanged since 1993. This is why we are, in parallel, launching a consultation seeking views on changes to the administration of council tax which will support taxpayers with their bills and improve taxpayer experiences of the system—particularly for vulnerable groups.
We know we are facing huge financial challenges as a country. There is no magic wand, and fixing the foundations of local government requires tough decisions, on all sides. But with this bold action we can stem the tide of councils in financial crisis and allow the most disadvantaged places to reinvest in visible neighbourhood services and support for the vulnerable. It will take time and dedication to achieve this, and I urge everyone, inside and outside the sector, to share their thoughts on these proposals.
Fair funding review 2.0
Today’s consultation on fairer funding reform follows the fair funding review launched in 2016 by the previous Administration but abandoned in 2022. We are finally following through where previous Governments failed. We launched a consultation in December, which sought views on the principles and objectives underpinning funding reform. Respondents were clear that reform is needed.
We will work with councils to fix what is broken, moving around £2 billion of funding to the places and communities that need it most and modernising council tax administration. We have made a start, beginning with the £600 million recovery grant in the 2025-26 settlement which started to correct the unfairness in the system by targeting money to areas with greater need and demand for services and less ability to raise income locally, and beginning the process of consolidating grants into the settlement. In this year’s spending review, we have taken decisive action to allow councils to reliably deliver for their residents by confirming an additional £3.4 billion of grant funding for local authorities over the spending review period. This is above and beyond additional funding for services provided outside of the settlement.
The last time that funding was allocated to local authorities using an updated set of funding formulae that sought to account for local authority differences in demand, costs and council tax raising ability was in 2013-14. This failure to update since then and the subsequent mismatch between funding and need has manifested in unequal outcomes for people and places.
Our up-to-date system will use the best available evidence to take account of the different needs and costs faced by councils in urban and rural areas, and the ability of individual local authorities to raise council tax. This means no one will suffer from deteriorating services just because they live in an area with low house prices or high demand for social care, or in a rural part of the country. We are also inviting views on resetting the business rates retention system to restore the balance between rewarding business rates growth and aligning funding with need. After the consultation and once finalised, the changes will be implemented over three years, beginning in 2026-27 through the first multi-year settlement in a decade.
As part of this, we are inviting views on a package of transitional arrangements to enable councils to deliver service transformation and efficiencies. We recognise that there is a balance to strike between directing funding where it is most needed and allowing authorities time to plan for changes.
We are also moving away from wasteful competitive bidding pots and restrictive reporting requirements to give local leaders the flexibility they need to deliver. We intend to deliver at least four consolidated grants through the settlement which bring together funding to support prevention and service reform, including a homelessness and rough sleeping grant, a public health grant, a crisis and resilience grant and a children, families and youth grant. We want to update the new burdens doctrine, allowing local authorities to plan more effectively. Building 1.5 million homes is a cornerstone of our plan for change, but we also have heard clearly that the new homes bonus is an ineffective incentive for new house building. We are therefore proposing to end the new homes bonus, and return the funding to the core settlement, to be allocated where it is needed most.
The consultation brings together opportunities and interactions across funding reform and devolution, local government reorganisation, and reforming local government burdens. We invite views on the role the settlement could play in funding strategic authorities, the treatment of reorganised authorities and reducing unnecessary burdens on local government. Additionally, we are inviting views on where it might be appropriate to update some sales, fees and charges, to support the financial sustainability of key services without placing an unreasonable burden on service users.
Consultation on modernising and improving the administration of council tax
Today’s council tax consultation explores opportunities to modernise and improve the administration of council tax to deliver a fairer and more efficient system for taxpayers and local authorities.
Council tax is vital in ensuring councils have the funding they need to deliver essential public services. It is therefore right that council tax avoidance is not tolerated, and councils have reasonable powers to recover unpaid council tax. However, it is also right that households are not subject to disproportionate enforcement action and that they can access support they are eligible for. While many councils have shown strong leadership in this area, we know that this balance has not always been struck, and there are too many cases of vulnerable taxpayers bearing the brunt of heavy-handed collection by councils and their contractors.
We believe we can be both firm on deliberate tax avoidance, and fair to those needing support. Therefore, this consultation explores proposals to end unacceptable, aggressive collection practices that have seen vulnerable people who miss payments subjected to unmanageable lump sum payments and liability orders, which can lead to bailiffs being sent in, without the offer of a payment plan or a welfare check. These practices do not benefit councils, who can incur costs seeking punitive measures without recovering the tax in question, nor residents, who do not see improved services as a result of attempts at this sort of recovery. Put simply it is self-defeating and lacks common sense.
The consultation also looks more broadly at wider opportunities to make improvements to local government efficiency in the collection and administration. It also looks to make changes to support taxpayers with their bills and enhance their experience with the system. This includes proposals to spread council tax payments over 12 monthly instalments by default, saving the average band D household £38 a month by spreading the total cost across more instalments. Councils will still have the flexibility to offer taxpayers, on request, the option of retaining the current default of 10 monthly instalments. We will also make changes to help taxpayers better hold councils accountable for how their taxes are spent. It also considers the outdated nature of the “severely mentally impaired” council tax disregard, seeking to bring its name and definition in line with modern parlance to reduce the stigma around accessing the support it offers. We are issuing a call for evidence on people’s wider experiences with existing support in the system, including views on the effectiveness of council tax disregards for carers and apprentices, wider support with council tax bills Government might consider, and potential future changes to the process of appealing a home’s council tax band.
We know these issues are complex, and we are ready to make difficult decisions where they are the right decisions. We therefore particularly urge residents as well as the local government sector to share their views on this consultation on the administration of council tax.
Conclusion
The consultation on the fair funding review 2.0 will be open for eight weeks, closing on 15 August 2025. The consultation on council tax modernisation is open for twelve weeks, closing on 12 September 2025. We encourage views from the sector and beyond on each of these consultations.
This written ministerial statement covers England only.
[HCWS724]