Green Manufacturing Jobs
Oral Answers to Questions — Business, Innovation and Skills
9:30 am
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North, Labour)
What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change on investment in green manufacturing jobs.
Vincent Cable (Secretary of State, Business, Innovation and Skills; Twickenham, Liberal Democrat)
I regularly meet the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to discuss energy and climate change policies, including investment in green manufacturing jobs in the north-east and elsewhere. We are committed to supporting green technologies including offshore wind, for which a sector strategy is to be published in the spring.
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North, Labour)
On Teesside and elsewhere in north-east England we have seen tremendous investment in green industries, but we have also seen billions of pounds-worth of contracts for British offshore wind farms placed abroad in Germany and Holland. I had hoped there would be provisions in the Energy Bill, which had its Second Reading yesterday, to ensure that British firms got British jobs. There are no such provisions. Has the Secretary of State suggested any amendments to the Energy Bill to ensure that we get British jobs?
Vincent Cable (Secretary of State, Business, Innovation and Skills; Twickenham, Liberal Democrat)
We are pursuing this not through legislation but through practical action and we are working with the developers’ forum to try to ensure that at least 50% of supply chain work comes back to the UK. We cannot do that unless we have the capacity, which is why we have established the catapult centres in the north-east and Glasgow to develop basic technology as well as the six renewable engineering centres, which will develop our engineering capacity.
Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West, Labour)
A small business in my constituency conveyed to me that it has considerable doubts about the implementation of the green deal and is therefore reluctant to invest in training for new employees and to make any other investment that might be appropriate to meet the demands
of the green deal. What reassurance can the Minister give that the green deal will be implemented and that those opportunities will be there for small businesses?
Vincent Cable (Secretary of State, Business, Innovation and Skills; Twickenham, Liberal Democrat)
I know that my colleague the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change attaches enormous importance to the green deal. It is, as I understand it, completing its state aid clearance in Brussels. When it is launched there will be a major incentive for people to improve their homes and to develop jobs on the back of that.
Iain Wright (Hartlepool, Labour)
The Minister of State tells the Institute of Directors that his Secretary of State sometimes escapes his electronic tag, while the Energy Secretary has to slap down his Minister of State over wind energy, so investors no longer know what Government policy is and Business, Innovation and Skills Ministers are too busy tracking the Secretary of State to help create clarity and green manufacturing jobs. Given that this is the season of good will, cannot the hostilities cease? Will the Secretary of State ask for permission from his Minister of State at least to undo his electronic tag a notch or do, and will not BIS and DECC Ministers snuggle up together to watch “Strictly”, eggnog in hand, and promise to come back in 2013 determined to focus on British enterprise and industry, not departmental infighting and ministerial surveillance?
Vincent Cable (Secretary of State, Business, Innovation and Skills; Twickenham, Liberal Democrat)
While we are on our links with the criminal underworld, perhaps I should explain to the House that I have responsibility for offender learning, and one of my plans for the new year is to lay on a basics economics class for the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues.