Green Industries: Supply Chain Jobs

The industrial strategy published last month set out our plans to build clean energy supply chains in the UK, including a new £1 billion fund through Great British Energy to partner with the private sector to create jobs in Britain and the new clean industry bonus, which has the potential to unleash billions of pounds of private investment in offshore wind supply chains. We are determined that the clean energy future will be made in Britain.

The power cables over the Tyne are a barrier to businesses securing work for large renewable energy structures, risking possible net GVA benefits of up to £1.2 billion. It has been proposed that the removal of the cables will be completed in 2032. Will the Secretary of State help me push for it to be brought forward so that Tyneside is not held back in the global race for green jobs?

First, I congratulate my hon. Friend on being such a brilliant champion of the port of Tyne and what it offers, and she is right to draw attention to this important issue. Approval of any works to reroute the line is a matter for Ofgem, but we stand ready to engage with her and, indeed, Ofgem to try to bring this forward. I suggest that my hon. Friend the Energy Minister meets her to discuss this important issue.

Despite the growing need for green jobs—obviously, we are all in favour of making sure we have green jobs—fewer than one in 10 employees receive any dedicated green skills training, according to an OVO Energy survey. What can we do to support businesses, and what can the Government do to accelerate that important training programme in all businesses where we need green jobs?

The hon. Lady raises an important issue. Later this year, we will publish a clean energy skills plan to address precisely this question: how do we make sure we equip workers with the skills they need to take advantage of those jobs? That is being led by my right hon. Friend the Education Secretary in the work she is doing with Skills England, but there is a whole range of things we can do. For the first time, the Government will publish what the skills needs are for clean energy jobs and how we will meet them, which will be an important step forward.

As people fly off for their summer holidays, the chances are that the steel in the aeroplane’s engine comes from the Stocksbridge Speciality Steels plant in my constituency. I am hopeful about the news that Liberty Steel, which owns the site, has attracted potential investors for this asset. The asset is essential for our national security and provides opportunities for net zero infrastructure, including wind turbines. However, uncertainty about the firm means that pension contributions have not been paid to the skilled workforce for 10 months, causing significant worry and anxiety for 600 local steelworkers. What reassurances can the Secretary of State provide to Stocksbridge steelworkers about how the outstanding pension contributions will be paid, including in any future ownership arrangements?

My hon. Friend raises an important issue about her constituency and the steel industry, and I would say two things. One is that what this Government have done, which I am afraid was not done previously, is set up a dedicated fund for steel so that we are able to make the green transition. We talked about this in opposition, and we are now delivering billions of pounds to help the steel industry transition. The other is that I will take up the specific pensions issue she raised with my right hon. Friend the Business and Trade Secretary.

The workers of Grangemouth deserved far better than they got from the Labour Government. To add insult to injury, they have had to watch them pull out all the stops for Scunthorpe and Prax Lindsey. In a written answer to me, the Energy Minister refused to confirm how much money the UK Government had spent to continue operations at Lindsey. Will the Secretary of State now come clean and tell us what price they are willing to pay to save jobs in England, which they were not willing to pay to save Grangemouth in Scotland?

The hon. Gentleman is so wide of the mark it is unbelievable. The Grangemouth closure was foreshadowed before this Government came to power. We have worked hand in glove with his colleagues in the Scottish Government—all the way along, Gillian Martin and I have been working on it—and for him to try to make party politics out of the issue is, frankly, a disgrace.

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

The British oil and gas industry is a resilient sector—it has had to be, given this Government’s actions over the past year—and it takes a lot to shock it, but shocked it was when, on 2 July, sadly the Energy Minister claimed to the Scottish Affairs Committee that there was no “material difference” between oil and gas imports and production from the North sea. Might the Secretary of State take this opportunity to apologise and clarify those remarks, because thousands of workers in the energy industry supply chain in Aberdeen and across the UK are very worried that the Department has such scant regard for them, their work and this world-leading industry?

First of all, Mr Speaker, let me congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his promotion to shadow Secretary of State. [Laughter.] On the specific issue he raises, we will take no lectures from the Conservatives. Some 70,000 jobs were lost in the North sea on their watch. And here is the difference: we are building the future. The Acorn project was talked about for year after year by the Conservatives but nothing was done. This Government are delivering.

I call shadow Minister Bowie.

The Secretary of State will not apologise. That is absolutely fine. The industry already knows that this is a Government who want nothing to do with it, and who take every opportunity to talk it down and make every effort to shut it down. In that same session last week, the Minister who is sitting to the Secretary of State’s left also claimed that “much of the gas that is extracted from the North sea is exported”. That is simply not true: 100% of all the gas extracted from the North sea is used in Britain. The Secretary of State knows that, so why is he so determined to talk down this industry, spout falsehoods and myths, drive investment out of the UK, rely more on imports and, crucially, cost people’s jobs and drive the skills we need out of this country? That is exactly what he and his colleagues are doing.

Here is the difference between them and us. They would keep us hooked on fossil fuels for time immemorial. They have learned not a single lesson from the disaster they inflicted on this country: family finances ruined; business finances ruined; public finances ruined. A year on, there is not a word of apology.