£11m-a-month cost to keep Speciality Steel running revealed by minister on visit to Rotherham

A minister has revealed is has cost £11m a month to keep the lights on at Speciality Steel’s four sites while looking for a buyer.

Reindustrialisation Minister Blair McDougall toured the Rotherham site on Aldwarke Lane on Tuesday (September 15) in the wake of Government plans to nationalise the firm.

But Mr McDougall revealed the steep cost of keeping the sites’ furnaces hot since it fell into insolvency in on August 21, 2025.

“Up until the decision we made yesterday, we were spending something like £11m a month keeping [these sites] open,” the minister said.

“A huge amount of the money we have been providing to the official receiver over the last few months has been about keeping the wages paid - that has been the bulk of the support provided.

“We made the decision yesterday to acquire the site, to try and move steelmaking here to a more sustainable basis, and to keep those capabilities so that we had the option of maintaining the site.”

If accurate, it adds up to around £143m for Speciality Steel’s four sites, including Stocksbridge and Rotherham.

Mr McDougall said it was “too early” to say what will be the cost of modernising the plants.

He added: “But it’s really important to say that had we allowed the site of this scale to fall into dereliction that itself would have carried huge costs for the taxpayer, in terms of remediating the ground and reindustrialising the area - so either way there was a cost for the taxpayer.”

He said he expected it will take two months to negotiate the acquisition and “make a decision about the future of the sites” to get it back in the black.

That extends to whether former bosses or ministers are likely to run firm in the end.

He said: “This is a company with a really strong reputation and also a company which does things which no one else in Britain can do. They have a long history with customers and they have existing customers, we will look to bring that together and build something that feels like a sustainable future for the site.”

Meanwhile, mayor of Stocksbridge Town Council, Richard Crowther, said: "[We] warmly welcome the government’s announcement that it is moving toward the acquisition of Speciality Steel UK in Stocksbridge.

“The steelworks have long been a cornerstone of local life, providing livelihoods, supporting families, and driving our shared sense of pride in our town.

“Steelmaking has been at the heart of Stocksbridge for generations, shaping both our history and our community’s identity, and Stocksbridge Town Council is hopeful that through this nationalisation, the future of speciality steelmaking will be secured.

“We see this as a vital step towards securing not only the future of the site but also the ongoing prosperity of Stocksbridge for decades to come.”