STEEL DEAL
Labour creating £2.5billion steel industry fund despite failing to save 2,500 jobs
Unions have argued about the risk to industrial jobs from the Government’s push to reduce carbon emissions
THE Government is creating a £2.5billion steel industry fund and giving £500million in subsidies to the owner of Port Talbot, despite failing to save 2,500 jobs.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds yesterday said the subsidies would fund Tata Steel's eco-friendly £1.25billion electric furnace.
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Under the agreement, Indian-owned Tata Steel, part of a huge £300billion conglomerate, will invest £750million of its own money.
Unions have argued about the risk to industrial jobs from the Government’s push to reduce carbon emissions.
Mr Reynolds called it a “new and improved deal” with a beefed-up redundancy package for Tata workers and training programmes.
He highlighted his £2.5billion fund and said he would set out a new strategy for the sector in the spring.
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However, around 2,500 workers will still lose their jobs when the Port Talbot site shuts its last remaining blast furnace this month.
Mr Reynolds said: “Our steel strategy will set forth a positive vision for the future of the industry.”
It will take until the middle of next year for spades to hit the ground on Tata’s new electric furnace and another two years for it to be completed.
Unions pushed Tata Steel to keep one blast furnace open until 2032 to keep people in jobs.
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Kate Middleton and Prince William spend the day in South Wales
Jo Stevens, Welsh Secretary, told MPs yesterday: “This means 100 per cent output gone at Port Talbot.
“An electric arc furnace will take five years to get running, with some suggesting eight to nine years before a new job is created.”
Tata says the new site will preserve 5,000 jobs and reduce carbon emissions at the site by 90 per cent.
Government sources insisted the deal would give the site a longer-term future.
Mr Reynolds added: “While this deal is much improved, I acknowledge it falls short of what would be ideal.”
Critics pointed out that Mr Reynolds had called Tory plans for the site in February “a bad deal for workers, a bad deal for taxpayers and a bad deal for industry”.
ON TO A GOOD THING
UMAR Kamani, the flashy founder of fast-fashion site PrettyLittleThing, is returning to the business.
Mr Kamani said it “had lost touch with what made it so special” after he sold his 34 per cent stake in 2020.
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In May this year, he married Nada Kamani, with guests including Mariah Carey and Naomi Campbell.
PrettyLittleThing owner Boohoo, started by his father Mahmud, yesterday said it would take a £34million hit on closing its US warehouse.
DUNELM DREAM
DUNELM is planning to open up to ten more stores a year to gain more market share from rivals.
The homewares and furniture retailer said it had grown sales by 4.1 per cent to £1.7billion in the past year.
It now wants to nab 10 per cent of the market, up from its current 7.7 per cent share.
Nick Wilkinson, Dunelm chief executive, shrugged off John Lewis’s recent revival of its Never Knowingly Undersold price promise.
He said: “Our customers know Dunelm is good value.”
UP TO 200 grassroots sport clubs will share a £400,000 grant from Flutter, owner of Paddy Power and Betfair.
One of last year’s Cash4Clubs recipients was London Wheelchair Rugby Club, which provided four players to Britain’s Paralympics team.
NET ZERO FEARS
THE boss of Vertu Motors has written to Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds to lambast the “harshest net zero regime in the western world”.
Robert Forrester, chief exec of the UK’s biggest dealership, said manufacturers were “rationing” new petrol cars to customers to avoid breaching tough thresholds.
He wants Labour, which plans to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, to follow US and European targets of 2035.
He said: “We have the harshest regime and it will have economic costs.”
BANK SET TO SLASH RATES BY CRIMBO
THE Bank of England is expected to cut interest rates at least twice by Christmas, after the economy flatlined.
Zero economic growth in July could turn out to be good news for some Brits, as experts reckon it will nudge the Bank into releasing some of the mortgage pressure from high interest rates.
The Bank made its first interest rate cut in four years last month, from 5.25 per cent to 5 per cent.
Now financial markets reckon concerns about the economy will mean interest rates will be reduced to 4.75 per cent in November and again to 4.50 per cent at December’s meeting.
Further small rate cuts are expected in February and March, which should mean interest rates will fall to 4 per cent by late spring.
The bets on the Bank cut come despite financial markets believing the US Federal Reserve will be slower to cut rates after an unexpected increase in inflation.
Ruth Gregory, economist at Capital Economics, said: “For now, we are sticking to our view that the Bank of England will keep interest rates unchanged in September before cutting rates again at November’s meeting.
“But today’s data has made an interest rate cut next Thursday a bit more likely.”
RENTOKIL £2BN HIT
RENTOKIL is becoming a pest to investors as a profit warning wiped a fifth off its value.
Shares fell 20 per cent yesterday, wiping £2billion off the London-listed pest control firm. It will now likely face more pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, father-in-law of Brooklyn Beckham.
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Mr Peltz’s Trian Partners took a stake in June, saying it would try to boost shareholder value.
It could still consider switching to a US listing.