Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK Government potentially nationalising British Steel

Over in the UK, the Government could potentially nationalise British Steel as fears grow that the company's blast furnaces in Scunthorpe could run out of raw materials within days.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has sought to reassure workers at the Lincolnshire plant that the Government is looking towards nationalisation as a potential solution. 

UK correspondent Gavin Grey says the UK is set to be hit hard amid the ongoing trade war - which could ripple out to many businesses.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gavin Gray's our UK correspondent, given Good Evening, either, what
does this talk of nationalizing British steel.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, we now know, of course that steel industries around
the world are those that aren't particularly booming are going
to struggle in this trade war. The UK is certainly
amongst those. British Steel is actually owned by a Chinese
company here in the UK, and it was reported about
a week or so ago that the Chinese had stopped
importing the necessary ingredients, the raw materials to keep this

(00:30):
blast furnace going in scun Thought, which is to the
east of England. In other words, if it runs out
of raw material within days, which is what's being reported,
the plant would simply shut down. And of course it
faces strong economic headwinds with those tariffs as well. So
the government here saying, look, if that is going to happen,
it was telling workers and unions we're going to step in,

(00:52):
and they are therefore considering nationalizing it. And it has
two blast furnaces in scun for British Steel the company,
and there are fears that without government support, twenty seven
hundred jobs could go. They've been with this company, jing
Ye in China since twenty twenty and jing Y says
it's invested roughly two and a half billion New Zealand

(01:13):
dollars into British steel to maintain operations, but is suffering
losses of one and a half billion a day and
so substantial losses or seven hundred thousand pounds a day
is the loss, so it is a very very substantial fund.
The government has twice offered five hundred million pounds to

(01:33):
support a switch from blast furnaces to an electric type
of furnace, more environmentally friendly, and twice that's been rejected.
So yeah, very very fragile state of affairs in the
steel industry.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Interesting given obviously the trade wills happening and there's a
campaign to buy British Interesting that Keirstein is saying now
I don't want a piece of that.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, very odd. I don't know if that's because it
was devised by the Liberal Democrat that's another party within
parliament or not, but yeah, it was very interesting that
they say a Kirstarmer spokesperson saying we're an open trading nation,
so we're not going to tell people, quote where to
buy their stuff. Well, all the Liberal Democrats were suggesting

(02:15):
is a promotional campaign to encourage the public to see
the British stickers on goods and buy those instead of
any alternatives. It seems a relatively harmless thing to be
asking and a good thing to be doing, but it
would appear the government's not going that way. What I
think we are perhaps going to see is easier for

(02:35):
small and medium sized British businesses to bid for government contracts.
And that's already a bit of legislation in there from
the previous government, but apparently it's still very very difficult.
Well I know that it's extremely lengthy and difficult if
you're a very very small business. And so they are
going to try and make this easier for British businesses

(02:55):
to bid for British work that is of public sector
nature stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
At least with all the doom and gloom in the world,
you've got some good news for us. You're getting the
UK getting a new universal theme. Pat where's it going, Gevin?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, in Bedford, which is about seventy eighty kilometers north
of London. It's on the site of a former brickworks
expected to generate twenty eight thousand jobs and open in
twenty thirty one. So it's a huge complex. It could
attract they reckon eight and a half million visitors in
its first year and generate one hundred billion New Zealand

(03:30):
dollars for the UK economy by twenty fifty five. Universal
Destinations and Experience say eighty percent of those employed in
the new jobs will be from the county and surrounding areas.
Universal of course has produced films like Minions and Wicked,
and it has a long list of theme parks. Of course,
the most famous is in Los Angeles and Orlando in

(03:51):
the US, but also in Asaka, Japan, in Singapore and Beijing.
So this would be the first Universal branded destination in Europe,
and I think this government is considering it's quite a
big win for them. Right as to all those promises
of jobs and numbers and figures, well, of course all
these things are projections, but certainly it's going to be
a very big provider just in its construction phase at

(04:14):
the very least very cool.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
I'll definitely be hitting along there, Gavin. Thank you for that,
Kevin Gray, a UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
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