THE Department for Business and Trade (DBT) spent £377 million to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe blast furnaces from closure, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).

The sum was spent between April 2025 and January 2026, with the money classified as a loan.

Spending could exceed £1.5 billion in 2028, with ongoing operations costing around £1.3m a day, no set budget, repayment schedule, or end date, added the NAO.

Jingye, the owner of British Steel, and DBT had been in talks around transitioning to electric arc furnaces between 2022 and 2025, but not reached an agreement.

In March 2025, Jingye announced it was losing £700,000 a day due to challenging market conditions, tariffs, and high environmental costs, and was considering the closure of the blast furnaces.

This would have led to a large number of job losses at Scunthorpe and affected customers in the supply chain, such as Network Rail, said the NAO.