Latest / Best of Business / Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK Government potentially nationalising British Steel

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Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on the UK Government potentially nationalising British Steel · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
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  Speaker 2: Gavin Gray's our UK correspondent, Gavin good evening. Either, what
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  Speaker 2: does this talk of nationalizing British Steel.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we now know, of course that steel industries around
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  Speaker 3: the world are those that aren't particularly booming are going
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  Speaker 3: to struggle in this trade war. The UK is certainly
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  Speaker 3: amongst those. British Steel is actually owned by a Chinese
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  Speaker 3: company here in the UK, and it was reported about
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  Speaker 3: a week or so ago that the Chinese had stopped
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  Speaker 3: importing the necessary ingredients, the raw materials to keep this
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  Speaker 3: blast furnace going in Scunthorpe, which is to the east
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  Speaker 3: of England. In other words, if it runs out of
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  Speaker 3: raw material within days, which is what's being reported, the
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  Speaker 3: plant would simply shut down. And of course it faces
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  Speaker 3: strong economic headwinds with those tariffs as well. So the
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  Speaker 3: government here saying look, if that is going to happen,
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  Speaker 3: it was telling workers and unions we're going to step in,
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  Speaker 3: and they are therefore considering nationalizing it. And it has
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  Speaker 3: two blast furnaces in Scunthorpe. British Steel the company and
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  Speaker 3: there are fears that without government support, twenty seven hundred
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  Speaker 3: jobs could go. They've been with this company, jing Ye
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  Speaker 3: in China since twenty twenty and jing Y says it's
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  Speaker 3: invested roughly two and a half billion New Zealand dollars
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  Speaker 3: into British steel to maintain operations, but is suffering losses
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  Speaker 3: of one and a half billion a day, and so
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  Speaker 3: substantial losses or seven hundred thousand pounds a day is
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  Speaker 3: the loss, so it is a very very substantial fund.
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  Speaker 3: The government has twice offered five hundred million pounds to
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  Speaker 3: support a switch from blast furnaces to an electric type
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  Speaker 3: of furnace, more environmentally friendly, and twice that's been rejected.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, very very fragile state of affairs in the
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  Speaker 3: steel industry.
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  Speaker 2: Interesting given obviously the trade wills happening and there's a
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  Speaker 2: campaign to buy British that kirstam is saying now I
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  Speaker 2: don't want a piece of it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, very odd. I don't know if that's because it
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  Speaker 3: was devised by the Liberal Democrats another party within parliament
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  Speaker 3: or not, but yeah, it was very interesting that they
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  Speaker 3: say Kirstarmer's spokesperson saying we're an open trading nation, so
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  Speaker 3: we're not going to tell people, quote where to buy
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  Speaker 3: their stuff. Well, all the Liberal Democrats were suggesting is
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  Speaker 3: a promotional campaign to encourage the public to see the
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  Speaker 3: British stickers on goods and buy those instead of any alternatives.
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  Speaker 3: It seems a relatively harmless thing to be asking and
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  Speaker 3: a good thing to be doing, but it would appear
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  Speaker 3: the government's not going that way. What I think we
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  Speaker 3: are perhaps going to see is easier for small and
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  Speaker 3: medium sized British businesses to bid for government contracts. And
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  Speaker 3: that's already a bit of legislation in there from the
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  Speaker 3: previous government, but apparently it's still very very difficult. Well,
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  Speaker 3: in fact, I know that it's extremely lengthy and difficult
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  Speaker 3: if you're a very very small business. And so they
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  Speaker 3: are going to try and make this easier for British
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  Speaker 3: businesses to bid for British work that is of public
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  Speaker 3: sector nature.
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  Speaker 2: Interesting stuff. At least with all the doom and gloom
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  Speaker 2: in the world, you've got some good news for us.
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  Speaker 2: You're getting the UK getting a new universal theme park.
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  Speaker 2: Where's it going, Gevin?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, in Bedford, which is about seventy eighty kilometers north
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  Speaker 3: of London. It's on the site of a former brickworks,
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  Speaker 3: expected to generate twenty eight thousand jobs and open in
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  Speaker 3: twenty thirty one, so it's a huge complex. It could
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  Speaker 3: attract they reckon eight and a half million visitors in
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  Speaker 3: its first year and generate one hundred billion New Zealand
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  Speaker 3: dollars for the UK economy by twenty fifty five. Universal
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  Speaker 3: Destinations and Experience say eighty percent of those employed in
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  Speaker 3: the new jobs will be from the county and surrounding areas.
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  Speaker 3: Universal course has produced films like Minions and Wicked, and
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  Speaker 3: it has a long list of theme parks. Of course,
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  Speaker 3: the most famous is in Los Angeles and Orlando in
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  Speaker 3: the US, but also in a Saka, Japan, in Singapore
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  Speaker 3: and Beijing. So this would be the first Universal branded
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  Speaker 3: destination in Europe, and I think this government is considering
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  Speaker 3: it's quite a big win for them. Right As to
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  Speaker 3: all those promises of jobs and numbers and figures, well,
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  Speaker 3: of course all these things are projections, but certainly it's
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  Speaker 3: going to be a very big provider just in its
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  Speaker 3: construction phase at the very least very cool.
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  Speaker 2: I'll definitely be hitting along there, Gavin, Thank you for
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  Speaker 2: that Kevin Gray, a UK correspondent.
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