Starmer expected to announce British Steel nationalisation in Kings Speech
Keir Starmer’s government is expected to use the kings speech this week to announce full nationalisation of British Steel, a step that would move the Scunthorpe operation beyond the government’s current role in its daily running. British Steel employs 3,500 people at the plant, which runs the UK’s last two remaining blast furnaces.
British Steel was taken over by the government for daily running in April 2025, but its economic control remains with Jingye, the Chinese company that bought it out of insolvency in early 2020. Jingye sought to shut down the blast furnaces in April 2025, and the cost of keeping the business running had reached £377m by the end of January 2026.
Scunthorpe plant and Jingye
The Scunthorpe site sits at the centre of the plan because it is the country’s last blast-furnace steelmaker. Network Rail sources about 95% of its track from the plant, so any ownership change would reach beyond the steelworks itself and into one of Britain’s biggest industrial supply chains.
Michael Flacks, a Miami-based retail investor, said he was “very” interested in buying British Steel in February, adding another strand to the ownership question before the government’s expected announcement. The company has already moved through several owners, including Greybull Capital before Jingye, and the government now appears ready to replace temporary control with full public ownership.
Government talks with Jingye
A government spokesperson said: “We’ve been clear that safeguarding UK steel making is our priority. We’re continuing discussions with Jingye to agree a pragmatic and realistic solution to secure the long-term future of the Scunthorpe site. Discussions are ongoing and no conclusion or decision has yet been reached.”
The bill or legislation tied to the king’s speech would give ministers a direct route to bring British Steel into public ownership, after the company’s running costs rose to £377m by the end of January 2026 and could exceed £1.5bn by 2028 if the current rate continues. That makes the government’s expected announcement less a handover than a decision about whether to keep paying for the plant through a legal change in ownership.
British Steel ownership shift
If ministers set out the plan this week, the immediate issue for Scunthorpe workers will be whether the state moves from managing the site day to day to owning it outright. The government’s talks with Jingye continue, and the shape of any transfer will determine who carries the cost, the risk and the authority over Britain’s last two blast furnaces.
