Thousands of workers at Britain’s biggest steel mill, Port Talbot, are facing redundancy under a taxpayer-funded Net Zero plan. The Telegraph has the story.
Tata Steel will be given £500m of taxpayer cash to fund its switch to Net Zero at its Port Talbot steelworks.
The Indian conglomerate is expected to invest £1.25bn, including the £500m of taxpayer money, in retooling the site to produce ‘greener’ steel, which ministers said will reduce the U.K.’s entire carbon emissions by around 1.5%.
However, the new processes will require fewer jobs and Tata will consult on a restructuring that could lead to 3,000 redundancies.
The Unite union described the plans as a “disgrace” and vowed to fight them. TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said it was a “devastating blow for workers at Port Talbot and the opposite of a just transition”.
Tata has been in talks with the Government for months about state aid to help switch the plant’s two coal-fired blast furnaces to electric arc versions that can run on zero-carbon electricity.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said the Government “is backing our steel sector” and said the proposal would “save thousands of jobs in the long term”.
Ministers confirmed the deal had the potential to safeguard over 5,000 jobs across the U.K. Tata presently employs about 8,000 steel workers.
Read more: Thousands of Steel Workers Facing Job Losses Under Net Zero Plan at Port Talbot