The North-east energy industry supply chain can take confidence in new measures designed to spread the benefit of renewables work, the Minister for Business, Energy and Enterprise indicated on Tyneside.
Matthew Hancock was responding to criticism of the UK government by Dutch firm DeepOcean which was forced to shed jobs from its Darlington operation in January citing the propensity for offshore wind work to go to firms with little UK presence.
Speaking to us before his address of the NOF Energy organised Energy: A Balanced Future conference at the Sage Gateshead, Mr Hancock said the offshore wind industry review recently carried out by Matthew Chinn provided the base for UK companies to act on opportunities.
He said: “We’ve brought in supply chain plans for renewable energy companies. They have to be in line with European rules but these plans have been introduced for the first time, and we should see their benefit to UK companies.
“We rejected plans that weren’t strong enough. We’ve got a good policy in place to make sure the whole supply chain benefits from offshore renewables developments.
“The opportunities are there and the recent result of wind farm auctions show that juice has gone into the other end of the pipeline.”
In his subsequent speech to delegates of the international energy conference, Mr Hancock said it was more “substantive” to make sure the UK supply chain was competitive.
In light of the recent oil price crash and calls for government to step in and protect North Sea industry, the Minister remained tight-lipped on next week’s Budget — but offered strong indication that further fiscal measures were on the way.
He added: “We’ve already introduced a range of fiscal measures to stimulate further investment in the UKCS. These measures have been successful, with almost half of the record £14bn investment in 2013 incentivised by field allowances.
“And we all look forward to the Budget next week.
“But industry can’t just wait for fiscal changes. This is a partnership, and we need industry to step up and address rising operating costs and reverse recent declines in operating efficiency.”
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