Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds says nationalisation is "likely" next step as Parliament rushes law through.

The UK government is taking control of Chinese-owned British Steel after emergency legislation was rushed through Parliament in a single day.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told MPs the government’s likely next step would be to nationalise the Scunthorpe plant, which employs 2,700 people.

But he said he was forced to seek emergency powers to prevent owners Jingye shutting down its two blast furnaces, which would have ended primary steel production in the UK.

      • LordOfLocksley@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        3 days ago

        Uk has a weird system. The government owns the tracks and rails, but private companies own “the stock”, aka the physical trains.

        I think GBR is the parent company that owns the rail. I could be wrong, but this is what I remember from looking into it a few years back

        • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          Its a shit system, really it just means the rails are privatly operated but they get to send a huge chunk of the maintenance bill to the taxpayer.

        • Agent641@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          Australia has an even more complex system. The state owns the land, and leases it to a company that installs tracks on it, they lease the tracks to a railroad operator who maintains and manages the track infra, and then operators own their own rolling stock that run on the track for a fee. One of those operators is the state, which operate some commuter trains (but the rolling stock are owned by another company)

          The state govt pays like 4 different companies for the privelige of driving trains upon their own land.

        • Pipster@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          6·
          3 days ago

          I think you are thinking of network rail who owns the infrastructure. GBR came about in 2021 when none of the operating companies were getting any money and so the government basically ran it for them. Basically it is de-facto back in public hands and GBR will take over once each operating company’s contract is up (I think SWR is first). At least that is my understanding of it.

          Also the rolling stock wasnt typically owned by the operating companies, they would lease them from the ones who did like Angel trains and Porterbrook.

  • SeeMarkFly@lemmy.mlEnglish
    853·
    3 days ago

    Good!

    Government is supposed to protect us from stupidity, not BE the stupidity (American here).