Ministers poised to nationalise second steel firm
The government is poised to take the UK’s third-largest steelworks into public ownership, after months of talks to find a buyer broke down. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said on Monday that ministers would seek to use recently ratified legislation to nationalise Speciality Steel UK (SSUK) from failure, a matter of weeks on from a similar [...]
The UK government is preparing to take control of the country's second-largest steelworks, Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), after months of unsuccessful attempts to find a private buyer. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds announced on Monday that the government intends to use new legislation to nationalise SSUK, which currently employs nearly 1,500 people.
The fate of SSUK, formerly owned by metal magnate Sanjeev Gupta, has been the subject of intense negotiations for months. The government had previously taken control of the plant a year ago after creditors sought to wind up the business and recoup hundreds of millions of pounds owed to them by Gupta. Initial efforts to interest a Norwegian firm, Blastr, in purchasing SSUK were unsuccessful due to the parties being unable to agree on a long-term solution.
Reynolds emphasized that the government's intervention was necessary to save over 1,300 jobs and preserve a crucial aspect of national infrastructure. He stressed that while the government does not intervene in private companies lightly, they cannot stand idly by and allow the company's future and jobs to be decided by default.
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