Steel Strategy: Next Steps

Sarah Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2025 Written Statements

[The Minister for Industry (Sarah Jones)]

Today the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and I will convene the first meeting of the renewed Steel Council. This forum brings together leaders from across the sector to provide strategic guidance and external expertise in the development and implementation of our steel strategy.

Steel has for too long been a neglected industry in this country. Staggeringly, steel production has declined by more than 50% in the last 10 years. Internationally, unfair actions by some overseas nations have undermined free trade, meaning our steel companies are not able to compete on a level playing field.

I believe steel should and could become a positive story. We are not naive to the scale of the challenge, or the situation we inherited. We know these are tough circumstances and it will take time to make things better. This Government will not let the UK lose our steel industry.

In Victorian times, we were the country which invented the modern way of steel production. Now is the time to find our next approach which enables steel growth and innovation. We are the Government determined to make the hard-headed decisions to make that happen. This is why we have committed to publishing a steel strategy in spring 2025.

Such a strategy will need to set a strong vision for the future, combat those factors which undermine competitiveness, and highlight the opportunities and future demand for green steel made in the UK.

As part of this steel strategy, this Government will look seriously at options to improve steel capabilities across the supply chain, including in primary steelmaking. As such, I am also announcing today that the Materials Processing Institute, a not-for-profit research and innovation centre based in Teesside, will lead an independent review into the viability of technologies for primary steel production, including direct reduced iron. The MPI will produce a recommendation to the Government on the viability of iron making and primary steel production technologies in the UK with a view to the current and potential future market.

Our new Steel Council will help us develop the strategy together. It will put the expertise of its members at the heart of our policy making process. It will provide a vital link between the Government, industry, workers, and our innovative thinkers.

Following the publication of the primary steel review and the steel strategy, we will continue to convene the council throughout this Parliament so we can make sure we drive implementation of the strategy and we make great use of the up to £2.5 billion of funding that we have committed to help rebuild the sector.

The council will be chaired by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and co-chaired by Jon Bolton, who has extensive experience of working in the sector both at home and aboard. Its membership includes representative from steel producers, the supply chain, research and development, trade unions and the devolved Governments.

We have published the full membership on gov.uk at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-sets-out-plan-to-secure-the-long-term-future-of-steelmaking-and-safeguard-steel-communities We will be uploading the terms of reference for the Steel Council and the primary production review to this page in due course.

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