The fate of 11,000 workers at Tata Steel is now in the hands of Greg Clark after he was named as the new business, energy and industrial strategy secretary.
Tata Steel announced in March that it was considering pulling out of the UK, but is now working on a deal to keep the business that is reliant on government support.
Sajid Javid, Clark’s predecessor, had offered to provide up to £1bn in government loans to Tata Steel UK and push through laws that would allow the company to restructure its pension scheme, which has liabilities of almost £15bn.
However, the Indian company is concerned whether the government will still sign off these measures and is holding off from making a final decision on its UK business, which includes blast furnaces at the Port Talbot steelworks
Steel industry leaders said that Clark needed to take “urgent action” to protect the industry, although welcomed the restructuring of the government department.
Gareth Stace, director of trade body UK Steel, said: “Bringing the pillars of business, energy and industrial strategy together will give confidence that the new secretary of state has the right ingredients for a recipe for success for the UK steel industry.
“We look forward to working with the new department to push forward the urgent action needed to remove unilateral costs, including energy, business rates and increasing the proportion of British steel used in British construction projects.”
