British Steel accounts face further delay

British Steel’s long-awaited accounts have been delayed again as concerns grow for the future of the industry.

The Scunthorpe-based steelmaker was meant to file documents for 2021 at Companies House at the end of last year – but now says it plans to do so ‘over the summer’.

In December the firm was said to be considering closing one of its two working blast furnaces, threatening thousands of jobs, unless it received £300 million in state funding to invest in green technology.

Talks with the Government are understood to be ongoing – Business Minister Kemi Badenoch visited Scunthorpe last week – but many want to know how strong British Steel’s finances are after rival Tata Steel recently warned that there was ‘material uncertainty’ over the future of its UK business.

British Steel was rescued from collapse by the Chinese group Jingye in 2020.

Accounts for 2020 show the company made a loss of £140 million.