North Lincolnshire Council leader calls for British Steel investment boost
Rob Waltham gave evidence to a parliamentary committee examining the Government's intervention in British Steel
The leader of North Lincolnshire Council has called in Parliament for an investment stimulus to help British Steel be competitive in the wider world steel market.
Cllr Rob Waltham (Conservative – Brigg and Wolds Ward) was invited to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to share his views on the Government’s intervention in British Steel and what nationalisation could mean.
The Government is progressing a bill to enable British Steel’s nationalisation. Although it has directed the business’s operations since April 2025, and subsidised it, Jingye remains the owner.
Cllr Waltham was accompanied in giving evidence to the committee by GMB’s national secretary covering the private sector, Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, a former Scunthorpe steelworker herself. Unite’s national officer Linda McCulloch and Community’s national secretary for steel and light industries, Paul McKenna, also gave evidence.
Stimulus call by council leader
Cllr Waltham called for investment, whether monetary or in policy terms such as contract procurement rule changes. He said the rest of the world “provides a stimulus to protect their steel industry.
“If you want British Steel to function in a competitive environment you have to be able to provide the same level of stimulus, particularly now when the market has failed,” he said, in reference to Jingye’s ownership of British Steel.
He later added, “Fundamentally, if we accept we need to keep strategic capability around steelmaking for the sake of our nation, for steel security, we’re not going to be able to do that without a stimulus. You either let the industry fail and then spend years trying to recover the community,” he said, “or you spend it now to invest effectively”.
Rupert Lowe MP (Restore – Great Yarmouth) had questioned the financial wisdom of intervening without a business plan and raised the far higher energy costs faced by British Steel compared to foreign competitors.
Cllr Waltham brought up the stimulus call in this context, and confirmed he had “absolutely” raised energy policy with the Government.
‘Cost of not intervening is unfathomable’
“The cost of not intervening is unfathomable,” said Ms Brumpton-Childs, when Mr Lowe questioned the financial wisdom of intervening in British Steel.
She said there obviously was work to do on energy policy, trade rules, and procurement, “something the trade unions have long campaigned for”. But she said it was a misconception to view decarbonisation as driving decisions, giving the example of the closure of Scunthorpe’s coke oven in 2023.
This was not due to carbon costs, she said, but because Jingye and predecessors “had not invested in this infrastructure in decades and so it was a death-trap”.
Meanwhile, Cllr Waltham said the effects of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant closing went beyond the 4,052 permanent staff it had as of January 2026, but covered around 20,000 workers when including the wider economy. “The aftershock of losing the steelworks would be so dramatic we would never recover without years of economic stimulus.”
‘Not an industry that won’t require some level of intervention’
Ms Brumpton-Childs and Cllr Waltham indicated the need to transition the plant to greener steelmaking but advocated for keeping blast furnaces running during this transition. “If we were to stop making steel as part of our transition, all your customers disappear,” said Cllr Waltham, stating it would be “a folly”.
Ms Brumpton-Childs said if there was a tagline for the position of the trade unions, “it is a managed transition”. She spoke on not only electric arc furnace capability at the Scunthorpe site, but also having a direct reduced iron (DRI) plant, with hydrogen capability. A DRI plant would enable virgin steel production to continue.
She and Cllr Waltham also referred to making use of the wider site for other economic opportunities. “I think we do have to accept this is not an industry that won’t require some level of intervention,” he said, for some time.
Both were clear removing Jingye’s ownership will make planning the Scunthorpe site’s long-term future easier. “Once that’s out the way, there will be no excuses for anybody not getting on with the job that we need to do to make sure we’ve got a sustainable steel industry,” said Cllr Waltham.
He indicated he felt making the changes and investment needed to make the steelworks sustainable had to happen within three years, as he feared goodwill will be lost and “people politics” over the subsidy cost if it lasted longer.
“I believe there is a bright future for Scunthorpe steel industry,” said Ms Brumpton-Childs, who emphasised of the steelworks future: “The key message from the trade unions and from our members is do it with them, not to them.”