An Aberdeenshire business leader has invited Andy Burnham to make up for Sir Keir Starmer’s failure to visit the region during his two years as prime minister.
Russell Borthwick, chief executive of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, told a Commons committee that he hoped the prime minister in waiting will make it a priority to hear first hand how the transition to clean energy is not working.
The Energy Security and Net Zero committee held a round table and public evidence hearing at Robert Gordon University where Mr Borthwick spelled out the need for a better understanding of the issues among politicians. These included an imbalance in the energy transition programme.
He said figures from the STUC showed that over the last 10 years the number of low carbon jobs has grown only from 23,000 to 35,000, “and that number has plateaued”.
He said: “At the moment, the gap between old energy technologies and new energy technologies is big, and we’re not closing that fast enough. There will be jobs to transition into, but right now, there aren’t.
“So let’s actually build that bridge across from one cliff edge to the other while we actually get up to speed.”
Mr Borthwick also stated that 400 jobs – equal to the Grangemouth refinery losses – were being shed every fortnight. However, more recent data from Robert Gordon was not mentioned. This says net job losses are just 130 per month.
He was happy that Aberdeen was mentioned in Mr Burnham’s speech in Manchester on Monday but regretted that he bracketed it with Scunthorpe and Port Talbot “because the economy here is still relatively strong, or could be strong.
“This does not need to become a post-industrial region. We still have it within our power to not make that happen.
“This is a choice that we have in our gift to make right now. So we will be inviting Mr Burnham to come up and talk about what he meant when he mentioned us.
“Sadly, his predecessor hasn’t made it [to Aberdeen] since he’s been in Number 10, so that invitation will be extended, round about the 17th July.” This is the date when Mr Burnham is expected to be declared the new Labour leader.
Richard Hardy, Prospect’s national secretary for Scotland, told the committee that the affect of the downturn in oil & gas extended beyond Aberdeenshire as many workers did not live in the region.
#Burnham #fill #Starmers #Aberdeen #absence #Daily #Business