Government defends Scunthorpe steel deal

ODN

Industry minister Sarah Jones says the government would prefer to find a private sector partner to manage the steelworks in Scunthorpe – but refuses to rule out the involvement of another Chinese firm. Speaking on the day a shipment of raw supplies is due to arrive at the plant, Jones also defended the government’s support package, saying the £2.5 billion fund will help ensure the site’s future and avoid even higher costs from closure and job losses. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00There's a boat in Immingham port as we speak which has the raw materials that we need that

00:06will be unloaded. Today the Secretary of State for Business and Trade is up in Immingham to see

00:12that unloaded. There are other orders also in the pipeline so we have boats on the way

00:18from Australia, from the US and from Sweden. We are buying those raw materials at commercial rates.

00:24I wouldn't say what the exact amount is but what I would reassure your viewers is that we have the

00:32funding secured within our existing budgets. We have a £2.5 billion plan for steel that was in our

00:39manifesto and so we are not spending above what we'd already committed. We had allowed Scunthorpe to

00:48close, the loss of those 2,700 jobs and all the jobs down the supply chain and the remediation work

00:55we would have had to do for the site. That is well over £1 billion that we would have had to spend.

01:00So we are investing now to make sure we have the option of a future for Scunthorpe. Now we need to

01:07work out what that future is. We would like a private partner, that would be our preference,

01:12but all options remain on the table.

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