10,369 JOBS...
...if we can build new offshore wind farms
LABOUR claims it will create more than 10,000 jobs in the North East by building offshore wind farms if it wins a general election.
The pledge comes as pressure group Extinction Rebellion holds a series of protests which it is calling an October uprising, designed to draw attention to what it calls the global emergency caused by climate change.
Labour says it plans a dramatic fivefold increase in the UK’s offshore wind capacity, with 37 new wind farms, as part of a ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ to cut carbon emissions.
This will create 67,266 jobs across the country, including 10,369 in the North East, according to the Labour Party.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “The full scale of the environment and climate emergency cannot be ignored.
“As scientists and activists have made clear, we need immediate and radical action to have any hope of keeping temperature rises to a manageable level.
“We know the big polluters and banks won’t take the necessary action. So the next Labour government will kick-start a Green Industrial Revolution, protecting our planet and creating hundreds of thousands of high-wage, high-skill unionised jobs across the country and delivering investment for communities that have been held back for decades.”
The total cost of the wind farms will be £83bn over 10 years. Labour said in a statement that the funding will be “drawn from a combination of public and private sources”. It will result in the Government owning a 51% stake in the wind farms, Labour said.
They will provide enough electricity for 57 million households, replacing the need for 38 coal power stations, according to Labour.
And 20% of the Government’s profits from the wind farms, estimated at between £0.6bn and £1bn per year, will be invested directly into held-back coastal communities to create a new generation of harbour fronts, parks, leisure centres and libraries.
The remaining 80& of public profits will be reinvested into cutting carbon emissions across the UK.
Labour’s plan to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2030 has not been welcomed by everyone.
Speaking at Labour’s annual conference in September, Tim Roache, general secretary of the GMB union, said: “The proposal to do it by 2030 threatens whole communities, threatens jobs, and frankly GMB members in communities right up and down the UK have heard it all before.
“This will mean that within a decade people’s petrol cars being confiscated. This will mean families can only take one flight every five years. Net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 is utterly unachievable.”
Neil Derrick, the GMB’s Yorkshire regional secretary, was booed as he told the conference: “It would require the confiscation of all petrol-fuelled cars still on the road, the state rationing of meat, limiting families to one foreign flight every five years, the closure of whole industries.”
Conservative business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said: “Even Labour’s own supporters have described their plan as ‘utterly unachievable,’ showing how Corbyn would risk jobs across the country. Why would any investor put money into a nationalised wind farm?
“While Labour joins disruptive protests, it’s Boris Johnson and the Conservatives who have outlined practical steps to achieve our world-leading net zero target, including delivering a major increase in offshore wind at record low prices, expanding electric vehicle use and making all new homes energy efficient.”
The next Labour government will kick-start a Green Industrial Revolution Jeremy Corbyn