Overview

• Parliament passed emergency legislation on April 12, 2025, allowing the government to take operational control of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant to prevent its closure.
• The move follows the breakdown of negotiations with Jingye, the plant's Chinese owner, which cited unsustainable financial losses of £700,000 per day.
• The law empowers the government to direct the plant’s operations, including workforce management and raw material procurement, with criminal penalties for non-compliance.
• Nationalisation is increasingly seen as the likely outcome, as no private investors have shown interest in taking over the plant.
• Closure of the Scunthorpe site would leave the UK as the only G7 country unable to produce virgin steel, raising concerns about national infrastructure and industrial capacity.