Steel Industry

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

2nd reading
Saturday 12th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, I associate myself with the comments about how wonderful it is that the staff have been able to open Parliament on a Saturday to facilitate this very important debate.

Of course the Government had to act quickly—speed is of the essence here—but it remains to be seen whether that speed will be of any use. The Government will have to focus on the many things going on now and will have to make very quick decisions. The Bill would have been far better if there had been a longer debate because, as has been said many times in your Lordships’ House, some very draconian powers are about to be handed out. How they are to be administered will send a message around the world about who we are as a place to do business.

I will concentrate mainly on the effects on the community. The noble Baronesses, Lady Ramsey, Lady Brinton and Lady Redfern, very clearly highlighted the reverberations that this will have for communities in Scunthorpe, where the blast furnaces are. We Londoners have very few relationships with steel, but we do have some. Rainham Steel, a business out in Essex, is very close to London; it has been a viable employer for years. It is exactly the kind of business that pushes our economy and provides employment, and it will suffer if this situation is not resolved correctly.

Having said that, I have three questions for the Minister. Again, as a Londoner, steel is not my specialisation, but communities are. I come from a community that struggles hugely with high levels of unemployment. The idea that an entire community’s employment will be whipped away makes this a social question for our country as much as a financial or strategic development one. How can British Steel survive under the current burdensome regulations and unrealistic net-zero targets, especially those around importing materials from abroad rather than using coke from here? I want to be clear: I am not saying that we should not have the net-zero targets, but we have to ask whether they are the correct ones. Are they driving our industries into the ground, making it uncompetitive to run a business in this country, or are they cleaning our environment? We need to make sure we do not do one at the expense of the other.

Has a financial impact assessment been made of the cost of this Bill? It may not lead to nationalisation, but the effect for the British taxpayer will be the same: a huge, growing and ongoing bill. If that has not been considered by an assessment, it really needs to be done urgently. Unfortunately, that cost will reverberate with other communities in this country, and we will be unable to afford the support that they need because we are spending money to subsidise this industry.

How long will this arrangement last? There is no sunset clause but there also seems to be no idea of how long it will go on. I repeat my earlier question: if you have a growing bill, and no way to end it, what happens if the British taxpayer is on the hook for it again and again? We need to get a handle on that.

I wish this Government every success in resolving the situation speedily, but history would suggest that Governments are not good at procurement or at running businesses efficiently. Ultimately, if this business cannot stand on its own two feet, what will we do then? It is very important that we keep the strategic ability to deliver our own steel. What will the Government do to make it work as a business? We have heard lots of talk in the Chamber about the large amount of steel that will be needed in the future but, if that is the case, surely the business is viable today. What work will the Government do to make sure that those orders come in and that this business works, to protect this community and our strategic goings-on around the production of warships in particular?

Can the Minister answer my questions in a direct and simple way that people from my community, as well as other communities across the country, can understand? There has been an awful lot of finger-pointing in the Chamber today, and the people of Scunthorpe, whose jobs, livelihoods and families are at risk, do not want to see that; they want to see a resolution.