Let us build HS2, says UK steel industry

After French win Trident deal, bosses plead for Government support

INDUSTRY chiefs are piling pressure on ministers to ensure steel produced in the UK is used to build the High Speed 2 rail link.

Liberty House Group and British Steel are pushing to become key suppliers in the scheme linking London with the Midlands and the North.

The £56bn rail link – which will require 2m tons of steel – won Government approval last week, and a guarantee that British-made steel will be used in the project would provide a lifeline for the struggling industry.

Higher energy prices and cheap foreign imports have taken their toll in recent years and led to the loss of more than 5,000 jobs. It is feared the Government may use foreign steel to build HS2 after a key contract to supply steel for the next generation of nuclear submarines was awarded to the French earlier this month.

Experts have warned that if British steel is not used in major projects such as Trident and HS2 then the industry will be unable to maintain capacity for the future.

Liberty House and British Steel bought former Tata Steel plants after the Indianowned company decided to withdraw from the troubled UK steel sector earlier this year.

Liberty House, which already had a steelworks in Newport, stepped in to save sites in Lanarkshire. Sanjeev Gupta (pictured), executive chairman at Liberty House, told the Daily Mail: ‘This is an exciting project with huge potential for UKmade steel. We would expect the scheme to generate major demand which will include steel plate for bridges, gantries and similar structures as well as the many concrete structures involved. As a British-based steel producer, Liberty would certainly want to be considered.’ British Steel was spun off from Tata Steel in April after investment firm Greybull Capital bought the Scunthorpe steelworks for £1, reviving the British Steel brand and saving 4,000 jobs.

Peter Smith, managing director for British Steel’s rail arm, said: ‘HS2 has the potential to make a huge difference to the transport and economy of this country, and we can play a significant role in this.

‘We have the capacity to make the rail for this project and will also be interested in supplying other steel products into the rest of the project.’

The Government has so far failed to guarantee that British-made steel will be used in the project, but it has said steel contracts will not go abroad ‘if the most competitive bid is British’.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘We positively encourage bids from British companies to build HS2 and are holding discussions with UK suppliers to make sure they are in the best possible position to win contracts for the steel that will be needed.

‘The Government has put rules in place to ensure we can buy the right quality steel, produced under the right conditions, and this will be of benefit to UK suppliers.’