“I’ve met Liberty before and I’m very happy to meet them again today”.
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Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said if the industry was “to be given a fighting chance then the government and Tata need to come clean on their intentions and prior discussions, because so far all we’ve had is more questions than answers”. We have an entire industry to save and not a lot of time to save it. “This is not something that a responsible employer would seek to do, given any sale and the necessary arrangements and due diligence will take some considerable time”, the letter added.
The Welsh Government is working closely and tirelessly with Tata and the UK Government to do everything we can to secure a viable and sustainable future.
“I will also be seeking progress on major steel using infrastructure projects – such as the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon – which will provide much needed support for the industry in Wales”.
Research for the union showed that the spend by NR with Tata was in decline.
Wales’ economy minister has warned against “cherry picking” in the sale of Tata Steel’s United Kingdom operations.
With 15,000 steel industry jobs under threat, a furious Mr Johnson said Britain has “simply lost, abandoned, surrendered” and “supinely given up” powers to deal with the impending disaster.
“Every aeroplane that is made has a piece of steel in it that comes from this site, I don’t think people realise that”.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid is to meet a potential buyer for the threatened Port Talbot steelworks before flying to India for talks with the plant’s owners.
The Welsh first minister said his message to Cameron at the meeting, which was also attended by Javid and George Osborne, had been: “These plants can not close”.
“The next step is for Tata to define the formal sales process and request indications of interest from potential buyers”, he said. He declined to say whether Liberty House would buy Tata Steel’s United Kingdom business if the pension fund were split off. “It is certainly an issue that has to be tackled, but for us the focus is the absolute viability of the plant first”, he said.
Liberty House said the talks had been “positive” and ministers were “keen to find solutions”.
Tata Steel made a decision to sell its poorly performing United Kingdom steel unit last week, giving up its bid to turn around the business it bought as part of the takeover of Corus at the peak of the commodity price boom in 2007.
“At the moment we are on the same page”.
The minister said Rotherham’s position compared to Tata in Port Talbot, which she claimed was losing £1 million a day, was very different.
Ms Soubry again defended Government policy towards helping the industry, adding: “We’ve been implementing a compensation scheme, and we’ll be exempting steel from two of the green tariffs from December 2017”.
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Full nationalisation is unlikely, but business secretary Sajid Javid announced a change to procurement rules to help British steel companies should be able to compete on a level playing field for public sector contracts.
