Time to end rudderless approach to steel production in Britain - The Yorkshire Post says
It is evident that keeping British Steel operational is not just an issue of protecting jobs but also of ensuring steel security. Too often the supply of strategically important materials has been taken for granted. That can no longer be the case. The era of globalisation has brought with it threats as well as opportunity.
The question is how did we get into a position where the Chinese owners of British Steel weren’t ordering raw materials in order to enable the production of virgin steel.
While the immediate priority should be to keep the two blast furnaces running in Scunthorpe, there are wider questions to be answered about how steel security has been left exposed.
Why was there no bridging plan for the shift from coal to electricity when it comes to the production of steel? If nationalisation is not the answer for critical infrastructure then what is? Unless the Government can prevent critical infrastructure falling into foreign hands on the free market, Britain will always be at risk.
No one wants unnecessary government interference in markets but at the very least there needs to be more robust fit and proper ownership tests of strategically important assets.
The Government was right to rush through emergency legislation on Saturday to prevent the blast furnaces from being shut down. Turning the site into a re-rolling facility of imported steel from China would simply not be acceptable.
Treasury minister James Murray was right to deny that China is a “hostile state”. Britain needs to remain engaged with what is the second largest economy in the world and our fourth-biggest trading partner. It would be economically illiterate to cut off ties completely but there are times when the relationship needs to be more at arms length.