The contract will see British Steel supplying a minimum of 337,000 tonnes of long and short rail in the UK over the next 5 years
Thousands of British manufacturing jobs have today (17 June 2025) been secured as the Transport Secretary visited Scunthorpe to finalise a major rail steel deal between Network Rail and British Steel.
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The £500 million 5-year contract will see British Steel supply over 337,000 tonnes of rail track, helping cement the company’s future just 2 months after the government took emergency action to save the Scunthorpe plant from closure.
Visiting the historic steelworks today, Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, announced details of a landmark deal signed between Network Rail and British Steel in an agreement representing the first major public procurement since the government’s unprecedented April 2025 intervention.
This saw the Prime Minister requesting the recall of Parliament to pass emergency legislation preventing the immediate shutdown of Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces, protecting vital British manufacturing jobs.
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That decisive action came after British Steel’s owners, Jingye Group, announced plans to shut down the site’s blast furnaces and some other key steelmaking operations, despite months of negotiations and a £500 million co-investment offer from the government.
This news complements the announcement of a new trade deal between the UK and US, which, once implemented, will lower tariffs and protect thousands of jobs across key sectors, including steel. The UK was the first and is currently the only country to have secured such a deal.
The deal demonstrates progress with the government’s wider industrial strategy to strengthen domestic manufacturing and supply chains as part of the Plan for Change commitment to drive economic growth across all regions of the UK.
Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, said:
Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said:
Today’s Network Rail contract, worth an estimated £500 million, will start on 1 July, providing the company with 80% of its rail needs and builds on the government’s £2.5 billion steel fund established to revitalise UK steel production over the next 5 years.
It forms part of Network Rail’s rail supply contracts for the provision of almost 450,000 tonnes of rail for the next 5 years.
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To ensure security of supply, Network Rail is set to award smaller contracts to some European manufacturers, who will supply specialist rail products alongside British Steel.
The contracts will see:
The strategic partnership builds on decades of collaboration between Network Rail and British Steel, whose Scunthorpe plant has been producing rail for Britain’s railways since 1865.
Network Rail’s Group Director for Railway Business Services, Clive Berrington, said:
British Steel’s Commercial Director for Rail, Craig Harvey, said: