ALISTER Jack has come under fire from Scotland’s trade unions after he said market forces were to blame for work on a massive wind farm off the Forth Valley going to Indonesia.
The GMB said workers had been “abandoned” by the Tory Government and forced to “compete with heavily state subsidised yards abroad”.
The £2 billion Neart Na Gaoithe (NnG) project is set to be one of the country’s biggest renewable projects, but it’s still not clear if Scotland will get a cut of a key contract to build the 54 steel foundation jackets which anchor the turbines to the seabed.
There are suggestions that just eight might be built in Scotland while the rest are constructed in south east Asia.
That would mean around just 15% of the valuable and crucial manufacturing work coming to local yards like BiFab.
READ MORE: Is Boris Johnson about to sack Scottish Secretary Alister Jack?
So far the only new confirmed NnG employment coming to Scotland is the 50 maintenance jobs at base at Eyemouth Harbour over the next 25 years.
Jack was pushed on the issue during Wednesday’s Scottish Questions.
Labour’s Tony Lloyd told the Secretary of State: “When EDF was given a licence to develop the wind farm at Neart na Gaoithe, 10 miles off the Fife coast, there was a commitment that 1000 jobs would be created in making the jackets for the wind turbines,” Lloyd said. “Can he tell the House how many jobs have been created?” he asked.
Jack wad forced to admit that he did not know the answer.
Lloyd responded: “I will tell the Secretary of State how many jobs were created: 1000—in Indonesia.
“Is the GMB union right in saying that the transportation of those wind turbines from Indonesia to the Fife coast will be the equivalent of 35 million cars on the road?
“How does that fit our commitment to greening the economy, and what confidence can people have in Scotland that jobs in a wind farm 10 miles off the Fife coast will be created for people in Scotland, not people in Indonesia?”
Jack dismissed the Labour MP’s concerns. “That is the market economy,” he said, adding, “and we need to be better at pricing and better at producing our turbines – that is the straight answer. We will discuss this issue and many others at COP 26 in Glasgow later this year, when we discuss the climate emergency.
READ MORE: WATCH: Alister Jack admits more than half of Scots pay less tax
“I do not dispute the fact that bringing turbines from Indonesia is not the answer; we need to find a better way of efficiently delivering them in the UK.”
The GMB were furious at the remarks. The union’s Scotland organiser Hazel Nolan said: “Far from ‘the market economy at work’, what we are seeing is yards here in the UK being abandoned by our Government and left to compete with heavily state subsidised yards abroad. The Scottish and UK Governments have failed to produce an industrial strategy to match the rhetoric on green jobs.
“It’s energy consumers here in the UK that are propping up this rigged market with spiralling energy bills.”
Scottish Green energy spokesperson Mark Ruskell said Jack had dismissed the industry: “Westminster holds almost all the cards when it comes to supporting our renewable energy industry, and government has made promises to do so by making generating subsidy dependent on delivering UK jobs.”
Matthieu Hue, CEO of EDF Renewables UK, said: “We don’t recognise many of the statistics being quoted here. However, only this week, we have outlined details of four supply chain events to be held in Scotland at which Scottish companies will be introduced to the Tier 1 contractors for Neart na Gaoithe.
"We are committed to generating as much work as possible here in Scotland. The full extent of the benefit to the Scottish supply chain will become clear once all Tier 2 and Tier 3 contracts have been awarded.”
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