Over 10,000 north east jobs to be created plus £130m of public investment in offshore wind announcement

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness laid out her Plans for Green Jobs at an event alongside the government’s Energy Minister Michael Shanks at Blyth’s Energy Central Learning Hub.

The plans will commit £130 million of public investment in the region and create 10,000 new jobs over the next decade.

“What it really means is 462 new turbines, 10,000 new jobs and billions of pounds of investment in our region,” McGuinness told the Northumberland Gazette.

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“It is absolutely brilliant news for the north east and a real vote of confidence in us.

“Alongside that, we’re launching our green energy plan for the north east which allows £150 million of investment, £20 million of that will be in the infrastructure we need to succeed.

“That’s all of the skills we need to grow the workforce of the future in green energy.”

The Crown Estate have also confirmed plans to lease new seabed sites off the coast of the north east which could open up six gigawatts of power - that is enough to power a quarter of the country’s homes.

Dan Labbad, chief executive of The Crown Estate, revealed how the north east will benefit from this announcement: “Our intent is to roll out another leasing round here in the north east.

“Our intent is to run six gigawatt leasing round in the north east, consult with stakeholders and with businesses over that period.

“Another leasing round here will generate jobs and we estimate another £12 billion in economic development and over 10,000 jobs.

“It’s fantastic for the region, fantastic for clean energy and energy security and fantastic as the world leader for clean energy in the UK and the north east region.”

Tensions in the middle east over recent weeks have once again seen energy bills skyrocket, with families once again forced to carefully manage their pockets to ensure their bills can be paid.

Speaking about those issues, Minister Shanks added: “We cannot continue to rely on international fossil fuel markets to power this country.

“We look out at these fantastic projects, but the truth is we didn’t build enough of them here in the UK. We have to learn that lesson on that.”

The announcement has also been welcomed by the North East Chamber of Commerce who say it will ‘provide long-term certainty to businesses’.