Government investment targeted at clean energy manufacturing and skilled jobs
The Government has announced new investment aimed at supporting clean energy manufacturing and skilled jobs.
Ministers said offshore wind developers can now bid for financial support if they drive investment in the UK's most deprived regions.
Applications have opened for a so-called Clean Industry Bonus, offering financial support for offshore wind developers, on condition they prioritise their investment in areas including traditional oil and gas communities.
The support rewards developers who build more sustainable low-carbon factories, offshore wind blades, cables and ports to reduce industrial emissions across the clean energy supply chain.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: 'We are backing our proud manufacturing, coastal and oil and gas communities with good jobs, skills and private sector investment – delivering on the Government's Plan for Change.
'This is our clean energy superpower mission in action, kickstarting growth, delivering energy security and transforming towns and cities as part of the transition – from the ports of Nigg and Leith to the manufacturing hubs of Blyth and Hull.'
Dan McGrail, chief executive of RenewableUK, said: 'The offshore wind industry already employs over 34,000 people in the UK, but there's an opportunity to treble this number by the end of the decade if we grow the sector's supply chain.
'Government initiatives like the Clean Industry Bonus, coupled with industry initiatives to support innovation and the upcoming Industrial Strategy, could drive hundreds of millions of pounds of private investment into new manufacturing.'
Dhara Vyas, Energy UK chief executive, said: 'Offshore wind is set to become the backbone of a decarbonised power system.
'To build an industry that is resilient to supply chain challenges, we need a framework that supports sustainable deployment, while fostering investment in the UK's industrial heartlands.
'The Clean Industry Bonus will help to unlock economic growth, create job opportunities, and maintain the UK's position as a global leader in offshore wind.'
Up to £200 million of funding could be made available, with an initial £27 million per Gigawatt of offshore wind projects.
Funding results will be announced by the Energy Secretary in the summer.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the bonus scheme 'is a baby step in the right direction but the funding on offer so far is nowhere near enough to transform offshore wind manufacturing in the UK'.
She added: 'If the Government is going to get anywhere close to its targets on domestic wind manufacture and green jobs it will need to come up with much more ambitious levels of investment and make sure that it delivers.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Edinburgh Reporter
23 minutes ago
- Edinburgh Reporter
Calls for the government to address demand for prostitution
The MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, Tracy Gilbert today led a parliamentary debate on Tuesday in Westminster Hall calling for urgent government action to address the demand driving prostitution and sex trafficking in the UK. Ms Gilbert said that the debate, 'That this House has considered the matter of tackling demand for prostitution and sex trafficking', focused on the urgent need to adopt a demand-reduction approach to tackle the exploitation of women and girls who are coerced, trafficked, or driven by poverty into the sex trade. Her speech highlighted the issue in Edinburgh, and some of the vulnerable women who have been affected by it, including Fiona Broadfoot who has spoken out about her treatment whilst working in an Edinburgh brothel. Tracy Gilbert said: 'In Edinburgh over the weekend (7 –8 June 2025), 142 women were being advertised for prostitution on one pimping website alone. Five of the top ten adverts are explicitly posted by so-called 'agencies' – so the site isn't even trying to hide the organised nature of this exploitation.' She outlined that current legislation fails to effectively deter those who purchase sex and called on the Government to explore legislative models that criminalise the buying, not the selling, of sex, as adopted in countries such as Sweden and Norway, and she gave examples of reviews made after the buying of sex including the following: 'Bad attitude. Everything was off limits.' 'Finally got her to lay there but it's like shagging a dead fish.' 'No smile, her atrocious English made the interactions even more impossible.' Tracy added: 'Men who buy sex are reviewing women as if they are reviewing an Xbox game. These comments prove that men who pay for sex treat women as subordinate sex objects whose role is to service their sexual desires.' Watch the debate online here: Like this: Like Related
Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Ed Miliband's nuclear golden era could soon become a new dark age
This Government is fond of making grandiose claims for things that are yet to happen. The latest is Ed Miliband's declaration that we are in 'a golden era of nuclear power.' He has made a series of announcements that may or may not come to fruition over the next two decades, including a new nuclear plant at Sizewell with £14 billion of public money behind it. But Mr Miliband is getting well ahead of himself. History shows that few public policies of modern times have been more mishandled. Britain once led the world in nuclear energy and it was very much a cross-party venture. The post-war Attlee government established the Atomic Energy Research Establishment and the first ever commercial nuclear reactor was built at Calder Hall under the Tories in 1956 just as the Suez crisis increased concerns over the supply of oil. British nuclear expertise was second to none and sought around the world. Under both Conservative and Labour administrations, the UK became a leader in nuclear power development, commencing operations on 26 Magnox reactors between 1956 and 1971. The technology chopped and changed, moving from advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs) in the 1970s to pressurised water reactors (PWRs) and even a fast-breeder reactor experiment at Dounreay in Scotland, opened amid great fanfare by Margaret Thatcher but which has now closed. Her government set in train a plan for eight new PWRs, only one of which – Sizewell B – was ever built. What happened? One answer is North Sea oil and gas. Fears about fuel scarcity and sky high prices abated as more came ashore. Cheap gas made the cost of nuclear look prohibitive to politicians fixated only on the short term. Meanwhile, across the Channel, the French, with no oil and depleted coal reserves, invested instead in nuclear power. By 1979 they had installed 56 reactors, satisfying their power needs and even exporting electricity to other European countries, including us. The French are even going to be building Sizewell C. They produce 70 per cent of their electricity by nuclear fission, which does not emit CO2, and are not dependent on energy from volatile regions like the Gulf or despotic regimes like Russia. This serendipity was as much a function of force majeure as foresight. As the French said 'no oil, no gas, no coal, no choice'. As a result they have found themselves in a better position than Britain in the switch to low carbon renewables. Because of the apparent bonanza provided by North Sea oil, we neglected the one source of power that would help create self-sufficiency and meet climate change objectives. Only when it was too late and much of the industry's expertise had been lost did the last Labour government try to reactivate the nuclear programme. Ironically, it was Mr Miliband as Environment Secretary who revived the programme 15 years ago in the teeth of objections from Labour 'greens'. Yet only one new reactor at Hinkley Point – using French technology and, to begin with, Chinese finance – has been given the go ahead. It is way behind schedule by at least six years and massively over budget. For all the trumpet-blowing is the new Sizewell announcement just another milestone along a road paved with good intentions and wretched decision-making? We know it will be hugely expensive and the idea of it coming on stream within 10 years is for the birds. Since it is a copy of Hinkley it should benefit by learning from the mistakes made there. But few can have confidence in the project meeting any of its financial targets or the timetable for construction because nothing in this country ever does. Around the world there is a boom in nuclear power building as countries see it as an essential complement to wind and solar, not least because it provides a baseload and is not dependent on the weather. Sixty reactors are being built globally – 30 of them in China, which has also opened a thorium plant, something we could have done years ago since we have plentiful supplies and the process reduces waste. Is there any area in which the UK can press ahead? Tucked away in his Telegraph article this week, Miliband says the Government is ramping up spending on nuclear fusion research, though this seems more a token mention than an enthusiastic embrace. Yet fusion is one area where the British do have a great deal of expertise, with start-up companies well ahead of any European competitors in raising investment. It is always said that fusion is the future that never arrives because it involves replicating the same processes seen on the Sun. About 35 years ago two chemists shocked the world by claiming they had come up with 'cold fusion' obviating the need to produce the excessive temperatures needed. But the science was flawed, even though some adherents still think cold fusion is possible. Fusion technology is advancing rapidly and is likely to accelerate with the help of AI, high temperature superconducting magnets and supercomputers. But those in the business fear the Government is making the same mistakes as its predecessors in failing to measure the long-term in decades, not parliamentary sessions. China, Japan and America are now in the vanguard of a technology in which the UK once led, as it did with nuclear fission. Arguably, the most important aspect of Miliband's plan is the green light for a fleet of small modular reactors (SMRs), though getting planning agreements past local communities will be hard. Even this has been fraught with bureaucracy and delay. A competition to find a developer for SMRs has taken two years before alighting on Rolls Royce. Why has it taken so long? The potential offered by SMRs was identified years ago; yet once again, government dithering has led to everything being done when it is too late to fill the energy gap that will threaten black-outs in a few years' time. This is because the switch to renewables, the ban on new North Sea extraction licences and the demise of coal will make the decommissioning of existing nuclear power stations even more problematic before new ones come on stream. How long before Mr Miliband's golden era turns into a dark age?
Reuters
28 minutes ago
- Reuters
Russian budget deficit for January-May was 1.5% of GDP
June 10 (Reuters) - Russia ran a budget deficit of 3.4 trillion roubles ($43.3 billion), or 1.5% of gross domestic product, for the first five months of the year, the finance ministry said on Tuesday, citing preliminary data. The budget shortfall was almost five times as wide as in the same period of 2024, when Russia ran a deficit of 730.4 billion roubles, or 0.4% of GDP. The ministry said the deficit was mainly caused by advance payments to finance budget spending in January and a decrease in oil and gas revenue amid lower prices for oil, Russia's main export commodity. Russia raised the 2025 budget deficit estimate to 1.7% of gross domestic product in April from 0.5% after reducing the energy revenue forecast by 24%, expecting a prolonged period of low oil prices. State spending on national defence was hiked by a quarter in 2025 to 6.3% of GDP, the highest since the Cold War, as the country continued its war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year. The government is planning to tap its fiscal reserves for 447 billion roubles ($5.51 billion), or about one-tenth of its liquid assets, to balance the budget in 2025 Spending in the first five months was 20.7% higher than in the same period of 2024, the ministry's data showed. Revenues for the period were 3.1% higher than a year ago. The Finance Ministry is planning another revision of the budget in autumn. ($1 = 78.5000 roubles)
