Dennis, I found this in Hansard from March 1967:
“However, it is interesting to read some of the reasons why the Iron and Steel Board would have refused permission had it had power to do so, because those considerations will operate in the case of Clause 15 and any Order made under it. A letter dated 7th March and written by Mr. Moore, Secretary of the Iron and Steel Board, to the managing director of the Millom company, said: The consideration that has been uppermost in the Board’s mind has been that the new process should be tried out in existing steelworks which already possess, in addition to ironmaking plant, the facilities for converting molten steel into saleable products”. That means that the existing producer would have been favoured against the new man."
Seems that if the new BSC couldn’t have it then no-one was getting it. I think the sums being asked for was just under £200k, equivalent to £3.5m today.
Sorry for taking the thread off on a tangent.