Reactive quote: The UK Steel Strategy

Reacting to the publication of the Steel Strategy, Executive Director Rachel Solomon Williams said: “The UK has a major opportunity to reinvigorate its vital steel sector and ensure it benefits from the clean energy transition. This strategy signals the government’s commitment to both aims, and we welcome the ambition it sets out. However, greater specificity and urgency will be essential.”

“High UK electricity prices remain one of the most critical barriers to delivering these objectives. The approach outlined in the strategy is a step in the right direction, but it will need to go further to deliver meaningful change for the sector.”

“Public procurement can also play a key role in boosting the competitiveness and growth of UK low‑carbon industrial sectors, including steel, as highlighted in recent Aldersgate Group analysis. The strategy’s renewed emphasis on increasing demand for domestic steel, including through UK production targets, is welcome. As procurement reforms progress, Aldersgate Group is keen to see mandatory whole‑life carbon assessments and progressively tighter embodied‑carbon limits for major public projects. This will support the decarbonisation and growth of the domestic steel industry.”

“Overall, low‑carbon innovation in heavy industry still faces the challenge that high‑carbon technologies have benefited from decades of optimisation, while lower‑carbon alternatives are only now reaching the scale where costs can fall. As demand for cleaner industrial products grows, these newer technologies will become increasingly competitive.”

Click here to see the Department for Business and Trade publication, The UK Steel Strategy

See relevant Aldersgate Group work on Low carbon public procurement for UK competitiveness