Rescue package is just a short-term solution for steel industry

How did it come to this? The country that is birthplace to the modern iron and steel industry is now in a race against time to save its only blast furnace, after being unceremoniously declared surplus to requirements by its Chinese owner.

While the renationalisation of British Steel may stir up romantic imagery among those of a certain disposition, the reality is that this is the last thing embattled Chancellor Rachel Reeves needs at the moment. The Scunthorpe plant is already said to be losing its present owner £700 million a day, and the British taxpayer can hardly be expected to pick up the tab for long. 

The Government hopes that with a bit of much-needed investment, it can make the plant profitable once more, and then sell it on to a private company, ideally a British one. History suggests that the course of British state ownership rarely runs so smoothly.

Maybe at the same time, the Government should question some of the policies that have left British Steel so unprofitable, not least that steel makers here pay nearly 50 per cent more for electricity than those in France or Germany. Meanwhile, having banned the further exploitation of Britain's coke resources in the name of net zero, our government now says it will buy the necessary coal from abroad to keep the furnaces burning.

In reality, the Government had little choice but to act. As Donald Trump said in 2018, if you haven't got a steel industry, you haven't got a country. Steel is at the heart of our manufacturing base, our construction industry, and most importantly of all, our defence capability. No country which has to rely on imported steel can be truly sovereign.

The modern iron and steel industry owes its very existence to this region, and in particular to Dud Dudley and Abraham Darby, whose work with coke lit the spark of the Industrial Revolution. 

Our leaders have a duty not to throw that legacy away.