Developer in British steel pledge

THE owner of £40m worth of residential housing stock in Greater Manchester has made a pledge to use British steel.

Stephen Beech, of Beech Holdings, has said now is the time to support the British economy as the steel crisis continues.

The 38-year-old owns 15 Manchester city centre buildings, some of which his company has already transformed from empty sites to apartments for entry level professionals.

The Manchester entrepreneur’s comments come following the dramatic increase in UK imports of Chinese steel over the past two years.

He said: “We are buying a lot of steel and will be doing so going forward as we own 15 significant Manchester city centre buildings.

“After a board meeting recently we ordered British steel for a six-storey tower on the outskirts of Manchester straight away.”

He added: “Through renovation you go through a lot of steel. We have a gross development pipeline of £100m so we need steel – but good quality British steel is our benchmark.

“For the economy, it is good. Where it’s possible to buy British, we are happy to do so. We should support British jobs at the end of the day.”

Beech’s comments come after reports claimed Tata could abandon its attempt to sell its UK steel business.

The UK imported 687,000 tonnes of steel from China in  2014, up from 303,000 tonnes in 2013.

“If every company in the UK that needs steel bought British, the industry would be well on the way back to full health,” said Beech.

“Being absolutely honest, I wasn’t aware until recently that there were so many cheap imports of steel.

“Chinese steel is heavily subsidised and fluctuates because China has been focusing on its export markets. That has created an unfair playing field.

“We thought about this and soon decided we wanted quality British steel going forward.”

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