‘It will cripple the town’: Scunthorpe ponders life after steel as 2,700 jobs at risk
Business owners say they are already struggling and furnace closures would make trading worse, but some residents say it’s time to move on“Everyone is despondent,” said Roj Rahman when trying to sum up the mood of a town where thousands of people could be out of work and 160 years of iron and steelmaking history could come to a juddering end in just a few months.“The steelworks is the very fabric of Scunthorpe,” he said.“It’s not just the steelworks, it’s all the small businesses associated with it, all the logistics and so on.Anything that happens at the steelworks has a massive, massive, massive impact on this town.”Rahman is a co-owner of the north Lincolnshire town’s football club, which at the weekend offered reduced price tickets to British Steel workers for the home match against Southport.
“It was the least we could do,” he said.Thankfully, they won.He also, a number of years ago, researched the people who came to Scunthorpe because of steel work.“Whether it was the Polish, the Ukrainians, the Irish, the Italians, the south-east Asian communities – they were all drawn here by the steelworks.”They included his late father, who came to the UK from what is now Bangladesh and headed to Scunthorpe because of the steelworks.
“He worked there 35 years and loved it.”Rahman, who owns Mortz Property Services, was speaking a few days after the Chinese owners of British Steel, Jingye, said it was starting consultations on redundancies.It plans to close two blast furnaces and steelmaking operations in the town, putting at risk 2,700 jobs, as well as a large number of jobs in the supply chain.Jingye said the Scunthorpe site had run up losses of £700,000 a day.It is understood to have rejected a £500m state rescue package.
There was a mix of anger, sorrow, fear and hands in the air in resignation in Scunthorpe when the Guardian visited on a sunny April day.For Rahman, the feeling was shock.“It’s unbelievable.Just the thought of it … it will cripple the town.It’s going to bring people to their knees.
People are reliant on it to pay their mortgages, to pay their bills.Mums, dads, grandparents … it is going to have an impact on everybody in the town.”Since the news broke the town centre had been “shockingly quiet”, said Tracey Miller, the owner of the Button Box haberdashery.While attending a “knit and natter” session at Miller’s shop, Catherine Anderson recalled the sheer volume of workers at the steelworks in the 1960s.“I can remember there being nothing but bikes as they left work on the 6-2 shift … bikes and bikes and bikes.
People went to work there and they got a job for life, full stop,” she said.Like many businesspeople Miller was concerned about the ripple effect closure will have on businesses like hers.“Obviously a lot of the steelworkers wouldn’t come in here any way but it affects everyone, it affects families, extended families.My son works at the steelworks as well but on the rail side so we’re hoping he might be all right.But no, it’s not looking great.
”Some people hope that a deal can be done but even then, said Rebekah Nunn, one of the younger knitters, “if it does survive, people aren’t going to think their jobs are safe.We have been here before.”That sentiment was echoed by a woman in a hurry who asked not to be named.“My ex-husband has worked at the steelworks all his life, 40 years, but all the time I’ve known him, it’s been closing.“It is terrible news though, it will be a big shock to a lot of people.
”No one knows how things will develop,Jingye has said closure,Local councillors have backed calls to nationalise British Steel,The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the BBC he was “deeply committed” to finding a solution,It leaves a gnawing anxiety for the people of Scunthorpe.
“It’s a worry for the whole town because it’s a loss of income for everyone,” said Sally Wright, the owner of a sandwich and catering company called Upper Crust,“It’s not just 2,700 jobs at the steelworks it’s all the jobs which are tied in to the steelworks,Steel is everything to Scunthorpe, we’re known as a steel town,It is going to have a massive effect,”The town is already facing incredibly challenging trading conditions.
Like many town centres in the UK, there are a lot of closed shops and businesses on the high street.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionAnna Da Silva Tavares owns Flowers World in the town centre.“Scunthorpe is not an easy town for business, it is very tough,” she said.“Sometimes I get the minimum wage – sometimes I don’t.People do want flowers but it has to be really, really affordable.
“Lots of my customers or their relatives work at the steelworks, it’s the biggest employer, so it is really worrying.It is so many jobs, everything could go down hill very fast for businesses.”Claire Kilty, the owner of Kilty Cuts salon, was probably joking when asked about her steelworks closure plan.“We’re moving to Canada,” she said.She said business was tough already.
“With the steelworks closing people are going to tighten their purses even more.We’ve had to put special offers on just to keep people coming in.”One steelworker, who asked not to be named, said he had received an email telling him he would be out of a job this year.“There are lots of conspiracy theories going round about who is to blame.Some think the Chinese have planned it all along,” he said.
“The thing is there has been investment.We are not driving round clapped out shovels [that] break down every 10 minutes like we used to … there’s lots of new machinery.”Not everyone is full of gloom.Trefor Edwards, 71, of Broughton in north Lincolnshire, spent 40 years at the steelworks, working in gas control.“It is time, I think.
They’re finding new ways of doing things.If it goes they’ll sell off the land and do something else on it … Scunthorpe won’t die.It will recover,” he said.Many people expressed concern about the effect on young people but four teenage college students were clear: they never saw their future in steel anyway.“The steelworks is just not appealing,” said Eve Woods, 16.
“Maybe 20, 30 years ago but not now.There are so many more options.”Joan Drury, 76, and Janet Lawson, 74, two straight-talking born and bred Scunthorpe pensioners, were having a sitdown and a smoke in the April sunshine.They were not optimistic about the town’s future.“The town is dead already so if the steelworks goes it will be a ghost town,” said Drury.
“People won’t have the money, will they?”Lawson’s husband worked at the steelworks for 20 years.“He had a good job, he was a crane driver.But everyone knows someone who worked there or works there.“Without the steelworks, this town hasn’t got anything.”
China, America and pay inject drama into AstraZeneca’s AGM
The boss’s bonus is an annual debating point at Britain’s biggest company. But that’s not the only issue this yearAstraZeneca is used to facing protests over pay at its annual general meetings, given the position of its chief executive, Pascal Soriot, as the best-paid FTSE 100 chief executive for most of the past five years. But pay is not the only issue overshadowing this year’s virtual gathering on Friday.Britain’s biggest listed company, valued at about £170bn, faces investigations in China over import and data breaches, while it ran into controversy when it ditched the planned £450m expansion of its vaccine site in Speke, near Liverpool, in late January, after failing to hammer out a state support package with the UK government.On top of these problems comes the prospect – so far unrealised – of Donald Trump slapping tariffs on the pharmaceutical industry as part of his continuing attack on global trade practices
Sobering stuff: UK alcohol industry reels from impact of Trump tariffs
To some extent, the US owes its very existence to the Welsh.Up to 18 of the 56 signatories of the 1776 Declaration of Independence claimed Welsh heritage, depending on which source you believe, including one delegate who was born in Llandaff.That is why Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day”, when he imposed “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly every country in the world, was such a sobering moment for the Welsh whisky maker Penderyn Distillery.In 2014, during a Nato summit in the UK, the distillery presented Barack Obama with a bottle of Penderyn Independence, celebrating America’s escape from colonial rule.Now that particular special relationship is hanging by a thread
Companies House collects just £1,250 in fines in corruption crackdown
The UK government agency responsible for overseeing a national register of companies has collected just £1,250 in fines after being given new powers to crack down on corruption, it has emerged.Companies House is implementing a series of reforms, amid embarrassing revelations about fraudsters and jokers signing up to the corporate register with names such as “Darth Vader” and “Santa Claus”.Measures include new identity verification checks for directors, after the agency admitted that up to 20% of the 4.9m companies on its database may have submitted false information.Since last autumn, the agency has also had powers to impose financial penalties for failure to comply with its rules, such as the requirement to file ownership information on time
China needs friends in Trump’s trade war. But Xi may have to go it alone
Beijing has launched a charm offensive with other countries as US tariffs tighten. If they can’t be won over, it may have no choice but to stimulate its vast domestic marketChina’s leader, Xi Jinping, says he is prepared to dance if it means sidestepping some of the worst of Donald Trump’s trade tariffs. Last week he sent a letter to India’s president, Droupadi Murmu, urging her to join him in a tango to celebrate 75 years of bilateral trade.Xi said it was “the right choice” for the two countries to be “partners of mutual achievement and realise the ‘Dragon-Elephant Tango’”, which, he added, “fully serves the fundamental interests of both countries and their peoples.”Beijing is on a wide-ranging charm offensive, aimed at redirecting its exports away from the US to other willing destinations as Washington erects trade barriers
The fallout from Trump’s tariffs: is there a masterplan, are we heading for recession and what does it mean for UK?
The US president wants to revive the manufacturing sector with a mix of protectionist policies, tax cuts and deregulation. Higher tariffs on foreign imports are supposed to encourage investment by US companies and overseas businesses that want to avoid the tariffs.The cash generated by the tariffs will be the source of funds for tax cuts, unlike Trump’s first administration when tax cuts were funded, Liz Truss-style, by extra borrowing.Rightwing groups that bankrolled Trump in 2024 want him to bring down debts, insisting the president work harder to balance the books. That’s also the rationale behind cutting government staff numbers
What are anti-dumping laws and why does Australia need them?
Trump’s sweeping new tariffs have left global markets in turmoil and Norfolk Islanders scratching their heads. Politicians, economists, and everyday people around the world have been scrambling to understand what it all means and what happens next.While officials in Canada, Europe and China talk tough, the response in Australia has been more muted.That tells us two things.First, that we don’t export a huge amount to the US, and there is a rare consensus that trying to retaliate would only hurt us more
Does the UK have a mental health overdiagnosis problem?
Sir Torquil Norman obituary
Ozempic is hailed as a miracle drug. But how does it affect people with eating disorders?
Plan to increase access to NHS dentists in England ‘a complete failure’, MPs say
‘I didn’t start out wanting to see kids’: are porn algorithms feeding a generation of paedophiles – or creating one?
AI cancer screening rollout should be accelerated in the NHS | Letters