I asked Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions today what has happened to the promised renewable jobs for Fife.
I drew attention to the example of BiFab, and other yards sitting empty across the country and asked the FM about the Scottish Government’s Low Carbon Economic Strategy for Scotland published in 2010 which stated that with the right support and infrastructure offshore wind “offers the potential for 28,000 direct jobs and a further 20,000 jobs in related industries and £7.1 billion investment in Scotland by 2020.”
The jobs and opportunities are not coming to Scotland. While the yards in Fife and elsewhere lie empty, the jobs are going to the United Arab Emirates, Belgian, Spain, Indonesia, China, anywhere but Scotland.
What is the Government doing to fight for Scotland, to bring jobs to Scotland, to make sure that it is the people of Scotland who get the benefits from Scotland’s natural resources?
Surely it can’t be right that we have yards in Fife lying empty, with local people looking for work, when we know we have the capability to do the work here.
All around Fife there will be turbines, and virtually none of the manufacturing work will be here in Fife, it makes no sense.
This needs to end. We need a proper industrial strategy and a proper renewables strategy. Warm words and prospects of jobs are all very well, but the reality is these jobs have not been delivered and Fife is continuing to be sold short on the renewables sector jobs potential it has.
Notes:
“A Low Carbon Economic Strategy for Scotland” available at – https://www2.gov.scot/resource/doc/331364/0107855.pdf
Section on renewables taken from p.47
