Britain's battered steel industry fights to be included in 'Great Grid' overhaul after wind farm contract snub

Steel companies have issued a ‘Buy British’ call in response to concerns they could be shut out from the £19billion boost to the national power network.

The Great Grid Upgrade is designed to fuel the growth of artificial intelligence and will be the largest overhaul of the electricity transmission system in decades, supplying energy from new offshore wind and other renewable sources to new industrial sites and data centres.

Gareth Stace, director-general of the trade body UK Steel, said British firms must be given the chance to build the thousands of pylons needed for the 600 miles of new power lines planned.

‘We are saying this is a great opportunity, let’s not miss out,’ he told The Mail on Sunday.

Stace fears a repeat of the rush to build a new generation of wind farms when UK firms were largely excluded from the £32 billion of contracts handed out.

The electricity transmission network in England and Wales is owned by National Grid, the £56billion FTSE 100 giant.

As a quoted company, National Grid is not bound by rules that compel public projects to use British-made steel unless there is a good reason not to do so.

Steel companies have issued a ‘Buy British’ call in response to concerns they could be shut out from the £19bn boost to the national power network

But Stace said his members had not received any details of National Grid’s procurement wish list, which would allow them to bid for contracts.

Ministers are under pressure to ‘buy British’, especially in sectors involving critical national infrastructure, but they are said to fear a negative reaction from the protectionist Trump administration in the US as geopolitical tensions rise.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham last month announced a state-owned Great British Grid company to rival National Grid. 

It would be set up using £4billion from the taxpayer-backed Great British Energy investment company with the aim of ‘increasing competition, driving down costs and speeding up connections’.

Veteran Labour MP Clive Betts, deputy chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, whose Sheffield constituency includes two steelworks, said: ‘Where there is a national interest, there ought to be a requirement for both the customer to look seriously at British steel and British steel companies.’

The renewed call to focus on backing Britain comes as a key decision looms over a £2billion contract for the next-generation Skynet military satellites.

European aerospace group Airbus, which employs about 14,000 in the UK, is up against US contractor Lockheed Martin for the Ministry of Defence deal.

There are also worries that UK firms will be overlooked for contracts to build small modular reactor nuclear power stations for Rolls-Royce after the engineer appointed Czech manufacturer Skoda and South Korea’s Doosan as subcontractors.

The state-owned Forgemasters steelworks in Sheffield is in talks with both firms about making key components for the reactors.

A National Grid spokesman said: ‘We will continue to work with industry to maximise opportunities for British businesses as this programme progresses.’

A government spokesman added: ‘We are focused on reindustrialisation, having already taken steps to protect UK steelmaking and strengthening our domestic supply chains, including for grid parts.’

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