British Steel shut North East site after Richard Tice's firm threatened rent hike

British Steel slimmed down its operations in the North East after Reform UK's Richard Tice's company threatened to hike the rent on their facility.

In recent days the Boston and Skegness MP has vocally called for the government to nationalise British Steel and save the firm's plant in Scunthorpe.

He wore a "Save our Steel" badge in the Commons during the emergency Saturday debate on a rescue plan for the plant, and urged ministers to "show your cojones" and take the firm into public ownership.

But Reform's deputy leader is also a director of Quidnet REIT, which bought British Steel's site in Darlington in 2022.

The real estate trust wrote that this would make it an "opportunity to improve the rental income for this asset".

The firm said buying the 7.48 acre would allow them "either to relet to British Steel at a higher rent, or to refurbish and reprofile into much smaller units to let at much higher rents".

Instead, the following year British Steel announced it would shut down the Darlington plant, moving its operations to another site in Skinningrove, a 50-minute drive away on the coast.

In 2023, Mr Tice boasted of his firm: "Rental income is rising substantially, with higher rental levels."

And Quidnet said it had increased rental revenue across 2022 by 27%, reaching £1.94 million and £1.21 million profit after tax across its various properties.

British Steel said at the time that all staff working at the Darlington site would be offered jobs in Skinningrove, but that the company would make efficiencies by cutting the amount of material moved between the two sites.

They said: "The new Skinningrove facility will replace the services currently offered at the company's site in Darlington, which stores and cuts profiles to customer requirements."

The Special Profiles Plant Manager said "We already supply customers on a just-in-time basis, but this new facility will help streamline our operations and further improve efficiencies."

Mr Tice told the Mirror : “Yes they left in early 2024 so no conflict of interest. As I clarified to Mirror many months ago.”

He added: "It’s completely untrue that the site shut down because of rent.

British Steel decided to invest elsewhere with a brand new facility at one of their existing facilities in Skillingrove - enabling them to achieve full integration with their upstream and downstream processes.”