Steel industry calls for new help as Tories prepare to meet for conference

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The industry has issued a new warning about the impact of high electricity prices on production costs

Industry grapples with high energy costs

Tory ministers are under pressure to throw a lifeline to the steel industry as companies grapple with sky-high electricity costs.

Seven out of 10 voters think the government should step in to 'provide competitively priced electricity' to the sector, according to a study.

The survey, which comes as the Tories prepare to gather in Birmingham for their annual conference from tomorrow, also showed that 80% of the public believe steel is 'a strategically important industry that we must maintain".

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The findings are in the latest report from trade body UK Steel, The Future of UK Steel - Five Steel Sector Priorities for a New Government, seen exclusively by the Mirror.

Among its demands, it wants "competitive electricity prices to attract foreign investment and ensure cost-competitive steel production in the UK".

Gareth Stace, Managing Director of UK Steel, said: "This report demonstrates what we in the steel industry have always known instinctively: the UK general public understands the strategic importance of UK-made steel. United and knows that it is essential to the success of the country that we continue to do so within our own borders.

Gareth Stace, Managing Director of UK Steel (

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Photograph by Edward Moss)

"Beyond this, the public understands what is needed to ensure sustainable steel production here in the UK and want to see the government take action to achieve this.

"For a long time, the UK steel industry often felt that successive governments took little interest in it and were content to watch it gradually decline as we became increasingly dependent on imports from the UK. stranger."

Sixty-eight percent of 1,500 people surveyed by Stack Data Strategy last month think public infrastructure projects should "prioritize the use of UK-made steel wherever possible" .