The North East mayor has warned Reform’s anti-net zero message is “dangerous” for our region, as Nigel Farage claimed there is “no chance” of a huge expansion of wind farms delivering a promised jobs bonanza, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Daniel Holland.
Plans from the Crown Estate to lease more sections of the sea bed off the North East coast for the erection of hundreds of new turbines were announced on Thursday, with hopes of creating up to 10,000 direct jobs in the wind sector and deliver a £12 billion boost to the economy.
But the prospect of a future Reform UK government, with the party having been at the top of the national polls for some time now, has sparked concern over the future of the country’s clean energy push.
Reform has pledged to scrap net zero targets and eliminate subsidies for offshore wind if it comes into power at the next general election, while Mr Farage has been calling for more oil and gas drilling in the North Sea amid the crisis resulting from the war in Iran.
Mayor Kim McGuinness wants the North East’s 25,000-strong workforce in green jobs to double in size over the next decade, seeing it as the successor to the region’s shipbuilding and mining heritage, and warned that a Reform government “would deny the next generation of young people more opportunity”.
Speaking at the Port of Blyth on Thursday as the Crown Estate announced its vision to make our region a “world leader” in clean power, the Labour mayor told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “Reform’s anti-net zero narrative is dangerous for our region. There are 25,000 people already putting food on the table every single day because of a job in renewables and they would deny those people that opportunity, they would deny the next generation of young people more opportunity.
“They are talking complete and utter nonsense if they think more drilling in the North Sea will solve the problems of the crisis we have now. It simply won’t. Even if we did it, it would take a generation to change things.
“So this is us investing in a renewable source of energy for the future, with jobs that are coming right now, this minute. This is investing in our own energy security so we are more insulated from global factors like war in the Middle East, which we just simply aren’t now. And this is us taking actual action rather than weaponising it as a political tool.”
Just a few hours later, Mr Farage was in Sunderland for a rally marking the launch of Reform’s local elections campaign.
When asked if the promised 10,000 new jobs in wind would be safe if Reform was in Downing Street, he replied that there was “no chance” that the industry could deliver that many.
The Clacton MP said: “What we know is that with construction of wind farms, people are employed. Thereafter, they are actually manned and run by very, very few people.
“What we also know is that they are all foreign companies, what we also know is that the blades are nearly all made in China. What we also know is that it does not work without effective subsidies, without guaranteed strike prices for the next 20 years that lock in high energy prices.
“What we also know is that when the wind doesn’t blow we need gas to back it up. If renewables work, fab. No problem at all.
“But we have gone through 20 years of saying this is the holy grail, of loading that subsidy onto household consumers and their energy bills.
“We have had the highest energy prices in the world and places like the North East have been deindustrialised because we are totally uncompetitive on energy prices. And to add to the bargain, if we were drilling our own oil onshore and offshore and gas in particular our prices would be a lot, lot lower. So I don’t buy any of this.”
The North East Combined Authority said that there are currently an estimated 6,000 people in the region employed in the wind industry.
Work has started on a mammoth, £60 million wind farm structure being built for Scottish Power at the Smulders yard in Wallsend, where around 450 people are currently employed.
When that project was pointed out to Mr Farage as an example of industrial jobs in wind in the North East today, he told the LDRS: “It will produce some jobs, but it won’t produce anything like the jobs in traditional manufacturing and modern day data centres etc. The two do not compute with each other in any way at all. The industry is only surviving because our bills are subsidising it. It is nuts.”
Glen Sanderson, the Conservative leader of Northumberland County Council, has also warned Reform against pulling support for wind power.
He said: “This is the future. This must not be messed, tampered with, or in any way sidetracked. This is hugely important for us, for our children, and our children’s children. Long may that continue.
“If Reform want to put a spoke in the wheels at any stage, I think you will find the wheels will remain intact.”
Daniel Holland
Reporter for the Local Democracy Reporter Service.
South West Durham News covering news across County Durham.
