New national campaign calls to “Back British Metals”
Image: Back British Metals Initiative
A new campaign, entitled Back British Metals has launched, directly calling to the UK government to ensure metals are recognised as strategically essential in the forthcoming UK Industrial Strategy and Critical Minerals Strategy.
Building on the recent government intervention to safeguard British steelmaking, the campaign welcomes this support as a first step, but warns that a broader, more inclusive metals strategy is now urgently needed. The Back British Metals coalition is asking Government to show the same bold ambition across the entire UK metals sector, including aluminium, copper, cobalt, lithium, steel and the platinum group metals (PGMs).
At the heart of the campaign is a Parliamentary Pledge Event, planned at 10am – 12pm on Tuesday 20 May, where MPs and Ministers will be invited to sign a formal commitment to Back British Metals and show their support for the sector.
Back British Metals is a national call to recognise and strengthen the UK’s capability to produce, process and recycle essential metals. From strategic energy pricing to smarter procurement, the campaign is focused on building a more resilient and competitive domestic metals sector – one that enables decarbonisation, supports economic security and underpins the UK’s long-term industrial growth. At its core, the campaign seeks to align UK policy with industrial capability, so that foundational metals are protected and championed as part of a joined-up industrial vision.
Metals are important to Britain’s industrial strength. From aluminium and copper to steel and the platinum group metals, they are critical to the UK’s clean energy transition, defence resilience, infrastructure and advanced manufacturing sectors. Despite this, many strategic metals supply chains remain at risk, according to BBM. Rising industrial energy prices are damaging UK competitiveness. Strategic-grade scrap is being exported instead of reused domestically, and current policy frameworks often overlook foundational metals in both industrial and critical materials planning.
Without a coordinated, cross-cutting strategy, the UK risks weakening its own industrial capabilities at a time when resilience, energy transition and international competitiveness are more important than ever, BBM argues.
The Back British Metals campaign urges the UK Government to adopt a joined-up, whole-value-chain approach to industrial strategy, underpinned by policy measures.
Specifically, the Back British Metals Initiative is calling on government to:
- Include metals and foundation industries as core enablers of all eight growth
sectors in the UK Industrial Strategy. - Adopt a full value chain approach across both Industrial and Critical Minerals
strategies, encompassing mining, processing, fabrication, manufacturing and
recycling. - Ensure the Critical Minerals Strategy is inclusive, explicitly recognising
aluminium, steel, copper, platinum group metals and other strategic materials
beyond rare earths.