Steel Industry

Lord Razzall Excerpts

2nd reading
Saturday 12th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Razzall (LD)]

My Lords, like many in your Lordships’ House, I lived through the history of the steel industry. In the 1970s and the 1980s, we had the debate over nationalisation, privatisation, nationalisation, privatisation, and in the past 10 years we have had a series of crises, culminating—until now, I suppose—with Port Talbot, where the last blast furnace was closed in 2024, leaving Scunthorpe as the UK’s remaining primary steel-making facility. Of course, Port Talbot has now been given planning permission for the construction of electric arc furnaces, but they will not come on stream until 2028.

I think it is accepted on all sides, with the possible exception of the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, and maybe the noble Lord, Lord Hannan, that steel is a nationally strategic sector that supports thousands of skilled jobs. As many noble Lords have said, if Scunthorpe is allowed to close, we will be the only G7 country without primary steel capacity. So where did it all go wrong? The noble Lord, Lord Moylan, called for the Government to apologise. Is he going to apologise for the previous Government’s behaviour with the steel industry in allowing it to lurch from near collapse to last minute rescue? Is he going to apologise for his Government scrapping the industrial strategy, or for approving the sale of Scunthorpe to what is probably a front for the Chinese Government?

Noble Lords would expect me to say that Brexit did not help. It reduced our capability to sell into Europe, which we had done with some success before Brexit. Of course, Trump has not helped with his 25% steel tariffs. I should say to the noble Lord, Lord Hannan, that the risk is not now of China selling only 7% to us, but that China will now use the opportunity given by Trump to dump steel on to the UK market.

What do we need? We need a real industrial strategy giving manufacturers certainty with clear plans for the steel industry. We probably need a complete overhaul of business rates, giving steel mills breathing room. We also of course need a new UK-EU customs union, reopening export markets for us with the EU and rebuilding our previously existing trade links.

In the meantime, any steps that the Government can take to keep Scunthorpe operational are obviously welcome to your Lordships—apart from one or two speakers—which will give time to implement the essential measures that I outlined above. From these Benches, we support this, but the big question remains, as one or two noble Lords have said. The Government earmarked £500 million to purchase new materials, which was turned down by the Chinese owners. However, if the Government have to nationalise the plant because no private sector interest has come forward, the funding costs will be huge. A new electric arc furnace costs £3 billion and Scunthorpe may need two—£6 billion will test the limit of the Chancellor’s fiscal rules.

UK Tradeshow Programme Closure

Lord Razzall Excerpts

Monday 18th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)]

My noble friend is absolutely right. We have a cultural issue with companies in this great nation of ours actually deciding to export. The total is about 300,000, and we have a target of 500,000—the 500 club that was inspired by my noble friend Lord Offord. We will do this in a number of ways. The UK Export Academy is an important mechanism for teaching businesses and business leaders how to export. We have 160 international trade advisers around the country whose specific task is to hold the hands of these companies when it comes to exporting abroad. We have thousands of agents around the world, underneath our HMTCs, whose job is to help them on the ground and help them find distribution partners, most importantly. We have the Help to Grow programme, the export support service, and we now have growth hubs as well. There is more we can do, but we have made a phenomenal start and are starting to see the benefits of a very coherent action plan.

[Lord Razzall (LD)]

My Lords, will the Minister acknowledge that there has been a significant reduction in export sales by SMEs and small businesses since Brexit? Will he also acknowledge that, to take advantage of the limited number of trade deals that his department has managed to sign since Brexit, it is necessary to give significant help to SMEs and small businesses, if the gap is going to be closed?

[Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)]

I would say two things to the noble Lord. First, exports are up over the past year by 13%—and tomorrow we have a debate on the CPTPP, which will allow this country to join an £11 trillion trading network, which will result in significant benefits to our businesses immediately and into the future.

Regulator of Community Interest Companies

Lord Razzall Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)]

I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Haringey, if I may, on his work to oversee the Fundraising Regulator. The comments he has made and recent example that he has just given are things that we take very seriously. I have communicated with the registrar at Companies House today and she is also ensuring that she is available for further inquiries relating to this particular situation. However, without giving too long an answer, community interest companies are a fabulous idea. They allow social entrepreneurs to take up opportunities in their community, to distribute dividends back into the company and to incentivise people to invest in social benefit. Communities across the country have benefited from these fabulous concepts, and we want to do more. They have been growing in number every year—we now have just over 30,000; I think that they have doubled in the past four years—and, frankly, this Government will do everything we can to see them continue and flourish.

[Lord Razzall (LD)]

My Lords, first, to follow on from the noble Lord’s question, bearing in mind that this has been going on—as the Minister indicates—for over 20 years, does the Minister not think that it might now be time to update the community interest test with clearer guidelines, which might meet some of the points that the noble Lord, Lord Harris, has made? Secondly, does the Minister not think that this might be an opportunity to increase the annual turnover test to encourage small companies to become CICs and to register accordingly?

[Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his input in this important area. These principles absolutely need to be kept under review. I have looked into this myself in great detail; only 38 complaints were made last year about these entities, which, considering there are 31,000, is not a significant amount. I do not believe that any CIC has been struck off the company register. We have updated the procedures around Companies House—director verification, statements of accounts, and so on—which will also apply to CICs. I am therefore very hopeful that we will see continuing reforms. I refer back to my original comment about the work that the noble Lord, Lord Harris, is doing to regulate fundraising. That is a separate point that is not necessarily related to company law, and we fully support his efforts in trying to make sure that it is properly regulated and ordered.