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“Everyone is despondent,” said Roj Rahman when trying to sum up the mood of a town where thousands of people could be out of work and 160 years of iron and steelmaking history could come to a juddering end in just a few months.
“The steelworks is the very fabric of Scunthorpe,” he said. “It’s not just the steelworks, it’s all the small businesses associated with it, all the logistics and so on. Anything that happens at the steelworks has a massive, massive, massive impact on this town.”
Rahman is a co-owner of the north Lincolnshire town’s football club, which at the weekend offered reduced price tickets to British Steel workers for the home match against Southport. “It was the least we could do,” he said. Thankfully, they won.
He also, a number of years ago, researched the people who came to Scunthorpe because of steel work. “Whether it was the Polish, the Ukrainians, the Irish, the Italians, the south-east Asian communities – they were all drawn here by the steelworks.”
They included his late father, who came to the UK from what is now Bangladesh and headed to Scunthorpe because of the steelworks. “He worked there 35 years and loved it.”
Rahman, who owns Mortz Property Services, was speaking a few days after the Chinese owners of British Steel, Jingye, said it was starting consultations on redundancies.
It plans to close two blast furnaces and steelmaking operations in the town, putting at risk 2,700 jobs, as well as a large number of jobs in the supply chain.
Jingye said the Scunthorpe site had run up losses of £700,000 a day. It is understood to have rejected a £500m state rescue package.
There was a mix of anger, sorrow, fear and hands in the air in resignation in Scunthorpe when the Guardian visited on a sunny April day.
For Rahman, the feeling was shock. “It’s unbelievable. Just the thought of it … it will cripple the town. It’s going to bring people to their knees. People are reliant on it to pay their mortgages, to pay their bills. Mums, dads, grandparents … it is going to have an impact on everybody in the town.”
Since the news broke the town centre had been “shockingly quiet”, said Tracey Miller, the owner of the Button Box haberdashery.
While attending a “knit and natter” session at Miller’s shop, Catherine Anderson recalled the sheer volume of workers at the steelworks in the 1960s. “I can remember there being nothing but bikes as they left work on the 6-2 shift … bikes and bikes and bikes. People went to work there and they got a job for life, full stop,” she said.
Like many businesspeople Miller was concerned about the ripple effect closure will have on businesses like hers.
“Obviously a lot of the steelworkers wouldn’t come in here any way but it affects everyone, it affects families, extended families. My son works at the steelworks as well but on the rail side so we’re hoping he might be all right. But no, it’s not looking great.”
Some people hope that a deal can be done but even then, said Rebekah Nunn, one of the younger knitters, “if it does survive, people aren’t going to think their jobs are safe. We have been here before.”
That sentiment was echoed by a woman in a hurry who asked not to be named. “My ex-husband has worked at the steelworks all his life, 40 years, but all the time I’ve known him, it’s been closing.
“It is terrible news though, it will be a big shock to a lot of people.”
No one knows how things will develop. Jingye has said closure. Local councillors have backed calls to nationalise British Steel. The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the BBC he was “deeply committed” to finding a solution.
It leaves a gnawing anxiety for the people of Scunthorpe.
“It’s a worry for the whole town because it’s a loss of income for everyone,” said Sally Wright, the owner of a sandwich and catering company called Upper Crust. “It’s not just 2,700 jobs at the steelworks it’s all the jobs which are tied in to the steelworks. Steel is everything to Scunthorpe, we’re known as a steel town. It is going to have a massive effect.”
The town is already facing incredibly challenging trading conditions. Like many town centres in the UK, there are a lot of closed shops and businesses on the high street.
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Anna Da Silva Tavares owns Flowers World in the town centre. “Scunthorpe is not an easy town for business, it is very tough,” she said. “Sometimes I get the minimum wage – sometimes I don’t. People do want flowers but it has to be really, really affordable.
“Lots of my customers or their relatives work at the steelworks, it’s the biggest employer, so it is really worrying. It is so many jobs, everything could go down hill very fast for businesses.”
Claire Kilty, the owner of Kilty Cuts salon, was probably joking when asked about her steelworks closure plan. “We’re moving to Canada,” she said.
She said business was tough already. “With the steelworks closing people are going to tighten their purses even more. We’ve had to put special offers on just to keep people coming in.”
One steelworker, who asked not to be named, said he had received an email telling him he would be out of a job this year.
“There are lots of conspiracy theories going round about who is to blame. Some think the Chinese have planned it all along,” he said. “The thing is there has been investment. We are not driving round clapped out shovels [that] break down every 10 minutes like we used to … there’s lots of new machinery.”
Not everyone is full of gloom. Trefor Edwards, 71, of Broughton in north Lincolnshire, spent 40 years at the steelworks, working in gas control. “It is time, I think. They’re finding new ways of doing things. If it goes they’ll sell off the land and do something else on it … Scunthorpe won’t die. It will recover,” he said.
Many people expressed concern about the effect on young people but four teenage college students were clear: they never saw their future in steel anyway.
“The steelworks is just not appealing,” said Eve Woods, 16. “Maybe 20, 30 years ago but not now. There are so many more options.”
Joan Drury, 76, and Janet Lawson, 74, two straight-talking born and bred Scunthorpe pensioners, were having a sitdown and a smoke in the April sunshine. They were not optimistic about the town’s future.
“The town is dead already so if the steelworks goes it will be a ghost town,” said Drury. “People won’t have the money, will they?”
Lawson’s husband worked at the steelworks for 20 years. “He had a good job, he was a crane driver. But everyone knows someone who worked there or works there.
“Without the steelworks, this town hasn’t got anything.”
