May 11, 2026, 10:54 GMT | Insight
The UK will have the power to bring British Steel under public ownership, subject to public interest tests, under new legislation to be set out this week. The public interest test would consider factors including national security, maintaining critical national infrastructure and supporting the economy, the government said.
The UK will have the power to bring British Steel under public ownership, subject to public interest tests, under new legislation to be set out this week to protect the country's critical infrastructure.
The plans would aim to support national security and jobs at the plant at Scunthorpe, England, the
Department for Business and Trade said on Monday. The measures are due to be announced on Wednesday in the government's legislative plan for next parliamentary session, called the King’s Speech as it is read out by the monarch.
“Steel is strategically important to our economy and our national resilience,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement. “We’re now bringing forward legislation to give us options to protect Britain’s steelmaking capability.”
The government intervened last year under the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act to ensure uninterrupted steel production and to avoid the sudden closure of the blast furnaces and the risk to supply chains and jobs. The emergency law was introduced as after China’s Jingye Group, which took over the plant five years earlier, threatened to end production (see
here).
The government said it hasn’t been able to agree a commercial sale of British Steel with the current owner. The measures could mean that British Steel would come under government ownership for the first time since it was sold in 1988.
The public interest test for the new legislation would consider factors including national security, maintaining critical national infrastructure and supporting the economy, the government said.
Please email editors@mlex.com to contact the editorial staff regarding this story, or to submit the names of lawyers and advisers.
Tags
Sections:
State Aid
Industries:
Manufacturing
Geographies:
United Kingdom, Europe, Northern Europe