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Legislation giving the UK government powers to nationalise the steel industry is poised to become law. The Steel Industry (Nationalisation) bill cleared its third reading in the House of Lords on Monday, allowing ministers to bring British Steel into public ownership. It will now go forward to receive royal assent. Business minister Sonny Leong said steel production remains essential to the UK’s national security. However, the Tories said they would continue to scrutinise the bill’s powers. Last year, Parliament passed special powers allowing the government to direct British Steel operations in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire. This stopped its owner, Jingye, from closing blast furnaces. However, the company remained privately owned. This bill will allow the government to nationalise British Steel. During its passage through the Lords, the government made a series of concessions on transparency, accountability and parliamentary scrutiny following any acquisition. This includes a sunset clause on its powers, which will end its ability to take ownership of steel firms after two years unless ministers ask for an extension. It also included a debate in both Houses within 12 months after royal assent on the impact of the Bill and quarterly written ministerial statements for the first year steel is under public ownership. Leong said steel has ‘shaped our nation’s history’ and ‘remains essential to the future, to growth, to resilience, to national security, and to the critical infrastructure on which our country depends’. ‘This legislation is one part of the government’s wider commitment to the steel sector,’ he said. ‘It gives us the tools to act decisively if strategic steelmaking capability is at risk. ‘It supports our objective for restoring confidence, protecting jobs, strengthening domestic capability, and securing a sustainable future for UK steel.’ Shadow business minister David Hunt said the legislation had been improved thanks to the changes but temporary public ownership cannot be allowed to ‘default into an expensive and permanent arrangement’. ‘A great deal of work remains to be done,’ he said. ‘Nationalisation may provide the government with an emergency power, but it is not an industrial strategy. ‘It cannot substitute for commercially viable businesses, for competent market-aware management, and above all for sustained private sector investment.’ While he said the Conservatives welcomed the changes, he said they would ‘scrutinise closely’ the ‘exceptional powers’ in it and ‘the costs that arise from them, and the government’s progress in returning any nationalised undertaking to an investable, competitive, and commercially viable future’. By George Thompson, Press Association Political Staff Press Association: News source: PA Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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