Clean energy pledge

The North East will “never turn our back” on clean power and a push for thousands more jobs linked to offshore wind farms, investors have been promised, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Daniel Holland.

Industry leaders were told on Thursday that the region hopes to soon generate up to half of the UK’s energy needs from offshore sources, creating and sustaining 50,000 jobs.

270 investors and developers from four continents were in Newcastle on Thursday for a green energy summit, where they heard that the North East would be “on the wrong side of history” if it pulled away from the renewables industry.

The conference came the day after contracts were awarded for new offshore wind projects that could power 12 million homes, including Dogger Bank South off the Yorkshire coast and Berwick Bank off the east coast of Scotland.

Kim McGuinness, Labour’s mayor of the North East, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that those developments created a “huge opportunity” for the wind farms to be serviced at the North East’s ports on the Tyne, Wear, and Blyth.

Addressing the summit at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the mayor said that climate change denial had become “really worrying” and that “if we turn our back on this it is 25,000 people [employed in the North East’s renewables sector] who can’t put food on the table tomorrow”.

Reform UK has repeatedly attacked net zero policies and  promised to reverse the government’s ban on fresh North Sea oil and gas drilling as a “day one” priority if it comes to power, while Donald Trump has adopted a “drill, baby, drill” mantra in the US.

After taking charge of Durham County Council last year, Nigel Farage’s party rescinded the county’s climate emergency declaration and has condemned what it has branded “eco-vanity” projects.

With Reform holding hopes of winning control of more North East councils at this May’s local elections, there is some uncertainty over the region’s long-term political backing for net zero.

But Ms McGuinness told the LDRS on Thursday: “There is nothing controversial about this industry whatsoever. We will transition to green energy because we have to, because we will run out of oil.

“The businesses here know that. Reform can say what they want, I want to back the 25,000 people already working in renewables in this region and double that number to 50,000. They [Reform] don’t care about those jobs but I do and the people here do. For me this is the biggest opportunity we have got in this region, the biggest opportunity young people have to get brilliant jobs and a really bright future. We will never turn our back on that.”

She added: “There is global competition for this. If we don’t take control of the natural resources we have, the fact that on a windy day the North East can power 50% of the UK’s energy supply, if we don’t take control of and harness it to create jobs and bring investment then other countries will.” 

Crown Estate CEO Dan Labbad, who spoke alongside Ms McGuinness at the summit, told the crowd that green energy was “fundamental to our future and this region is at the heart of that”.

Mr Labbad said there had been a global downturn in renewables investment amid the political turmoil surrounding the industry, but that he expected that to change in the next five years – offering an opportunity for whoever moves fastest in building a supply chain to develop and service offshore wind farms to win “global dominance”.

He added that the region risked being “on the wrong side of history if we don’t take advantage”.

In 2024, The Crown Estate signalled in its Future of Offshore Wind publication that up to 16GW of offshore wind opportunity could be leased off the North East coast by 2030 and installed up to 2040.

Lloyds Banking Group chair Sir Robin Budenberg, whose company this week announced it would make £1 billion of new finance available to businesses across the North East in 2026, said that the region has the “biggest opportunity in the country in green energy”.

On Thursday, the region’s three ports and Newcastle International Airport also signed a “landmark” memorandum of understanding aimed at boosting connectivity for businesses and supporting the clean energy sector.