Speciality Steel UK

Debate between Lord Sarwar and Lord Mohammed of Tinsley

Tuesday 15th September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mohammed of Tinsley (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome the Minister to his position; I look forward to quizzing him as someone from Sheffield and from a steel-making heritage. I will miss my interactions with his noble friend Lord Leong; I really enjoyed them and wish him well. I will make two points. First, we need a frictionless relationship with the EU, so whatever barriers and bureaucracy the Minister can take away in the reset with the European Union will be welcomed by these Benches.

Secondly, I will pick up on the point that my noble friend Lord Fox raised about people. Due to the unstable nature of the industry over the past couple of years, it has lost some skilled, experienced workers, both through redundancy and because some have sought stability elsewhere. Therefore, following my noble friend, I press the Minister on how we can bring back that skills base and how we can grow the next generation through apprenticeships. I would welcome responses to that people question; he rightly commented on it at the beginning, but I would like to press him further.

[Lord Sarwar (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his questions. Let me reassure him that my noble friend will continue to fact-check me on a regular basis in the absence of him answering questions directly.

The workforce is fundamental to this. We will of course make decisions based on what it means for production, GDP, growth and broader calculations, but for these communities—either those working directly at these sites or those relying on them for employment indirectly—this is their everyday life. Many of the sites, particularly Speciality Steel UK, are in some of the most deprived communities in the country. Therefore, it is important that we work right across government, including the Department for Education and the DWP, as well as with BIS colleagues, the local authority and the broader mayoral and regional authorities, to make sure that, where we can, we are protecting these jobs and provide reskilling opportunities.

To the noble Lord’s final point, we have to make sure that the next generation also feels that this is a sector in which they want to train and then work, because that too is very much a part of having a sustainable steel future for the UK.