Government pledges £426m to steelworks site

The government has pledged £426m of investment towards works at a Sheffield steel producer in a move it said would protect 700 skilled jobs.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) bought Sheffield Forgemasters in 2021 and will use the site, near Meadowhall, to support manufacturing for defence programmes.

Earlier this year, plans to build a new plant at the facility, which will be operational by 2028, were approved.

On Tuesday, the government announced it would plough extra funding into the site in a move it claimed would also create 900 construction jobs.

Defence Secretary John Healey said the investment was important at a time when "global threats are rising".

Healey said: "We recognise we need to invest in our defence and Armed Forces. But a country's military is only as strong as the country standing behind it.

"Forgemasters is a shining example of what we have in the UK, of innovation and traditional industry, and it demonstrates how defence is an engine for growth in jobs and investment right across the country."

Forgemasters, which dates back about 250 years, is one of Sheffield's oldest industrial sites.

After planning permission for the new facility was granted in February, Forgemasters programme director Craig Fisher said the development would "create highly-skilled engineering jobs for decades to come".

"This planning agreement will see construction of the largest machining hall of its kind in the UK, and regeneration of a prominent brownfield site in the city's industrial centre," he said.

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