Council leader urges investment in British Steel in today’s Budget to safeguard jobs and local production

The leader of North Lincolnshire Council is urging the government to invest in British Steel in todays budget.

Cllr Rob Waltham recently visited China to meet with politicians and discuss the importance of local steel making and job protection.

It's after plans were made to close the plant's two furnaces and replace them with a greener electric arc.

Cllr Rob Waltham, Leader of North Lincolnshire Council, said:

"Making sure that we can keep making primary steel. We can keep making pure steel here in the uk. That's really important for our area because the consequences of just moving to green steel is significant to jobs in our patch.

"We've got to develop hydrogen at a pace so that we can increase the volume that can be supplied, which will lower the price to enable us to be able to fuel our blast furnaces with hydrogen rather than Coke, which enables us to be able to keep pure steel making for our country.

"If the government's serious about meeting the challenges of a changing climate, it's really important that they put a financial commitment to sustaining steel making in this country.

Rob met with owners Jinye Group in China recently, he said:

"I think it's important to them and their culture for us to be able to share in the common interest about steel making, particularly for our region. And I think what we were able to talk about was we were able to be really clear in terms of what the business plan is for British Steel."

Industry Minister Sarah Jones pledged a government steel strategy, “developed and delivered in partnership with the steel sector and the trade unions”.

For commercial confidentiality reasons, she could not explain discussions with British Steel’s owners, Jingye Group.

Conversations were happening all the time and “we are working unbelievably hard to get a solution for Scunthorpe,” she said.