In a significant intervention to avert a major industrial crisis, the UK government has announced it will underpin the pay and pension entitlements for more than 1,700 workers at the collapsed Liberty Steel plant in South Yorkshire.
The move comes after the official appointment of administrators to Liberty Performance Steels, which operates crucial sites in Stocksbridge and Rotherham. This speciality steelmaker, part of Sanjeev Gupta's troubled GFG Alliance, succumbed to financial pressures after failing to secure new funding.
The government's safety net guarantees that all employees will receive their outstanding wages and accrued redundancy entitlements. Furthermore, the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) will now step in to safeguard the company's pension scheme, ensuring retired and current workers are protected.
"This will be a huge relief to the dedicated workforce who have faced immense uncertainty," said Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds. "The government is taking necessary steps to protect these highly skilled jobs, shore up the UK's steelmaking capacity, and provide stability for the local community in South Yorkshire."
The affected plants are critical to Britain's industrial infrastructure, producing specialised alloys for the aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas sectors. Their collapse threatened to cause severe ripple effects through the supply chain.
While the immediate disaster has been mitigated, the long-term future of the sites remains in the hands of the administrators from Teneo, who will now seek a new buyer to secure its operations and preserve its vital role in UK manufacturing.
