British Steel’s Crisis and the Politics of Propping Up a National Staple

British Steel is in trouble again - and when a company that supplies 95% of the country’s rail tracks starts running out of money, people in Whitehall tend to sit up and pay attention. Unfortunately, so do investors, unions, and anyone trying to work out whether they’re about to be on the hook for a few hundred million in restructuring costs.

The company is losing cash, short on support, and currently operating under a new piece of emergency legislation that sounds more like a PR campaign than a financial fix. Nationalisation hasn’t happened. Yet. But the scaffolding is being erected.

Here’s what’s going on, what’s at stake, and why it matters far beyond Scunthorpe.