UK steel industry in crisis
David Cameron is holding crisis talks regarding the UK steel industry following the pressure on ministers to guarantee the future of Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Labour is being urged to act quickly to help the industry since the announcement that Tata Steel will be selling its UK plants. However, the government have stressed that they want reassurance that Tata Steel will not close its plants before a buyer is found.
Any suggestion of nationalising the works has been disregarded by the government, but they say they are considering all options to possibly help engineer a sale.
It is understood the government is looking at offering loan guarantees to potential buyers and much tighter rules on procurement to ensure British projects are obliged to buy British steel.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of trade union, Unite, has said the UK is in the grip of an “industrial crisis of enormous proportions”.
He called for the creation of a steel taskforce and for the government to intervene to save the steel industry like it did the banks during the financial crisis.
The Port Talbot plant is said to be losing £1 million a day.
