The business secretary has told the CEO of Jingye Group, British Steel's Chinese owner, that proposals for 800 job cuts risk complicating the discussions over a £300m taxpayer funding package, Sky News learns.
"Jingye is committed to our long-term future but decarbonisation is a major challenge for our business and, like most companies, we're facing significant challenges because of the economic slowdown, rising inflation and exceptionally high energy prices," it said.
The proposed job cuts would focus principally on the Scunthorpe plant in north Lincolnshire where British Steel is based, and would involve the closure of coke ovens, although Scunthorpe's two blast furnaces and other mills within the Chinese-owned group would continue to operate. In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, in December, Mr Shapps and Michael Gove, the levelling-up secretary, warned that British Steel's demise could cost the government up to £1bn in decommissioning and other liabilities.
"We do not want to become reliant on steel sources elsewhere in the same way that energy security has become self-evidently important.
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