Firms rake in £13bn as 4000 Scots green revolution jobs are axed

The latest official estimates show that jobs in the low carbon and renewable energy sector have dropped by 13% in the year from 29,700 to 25,700 - while turnover has soared by 47% from £8.853bn to £12.992bn.

And Scottish jobs in offshore wind fell from 3200 in 2021 to 3100 in 2022 - as concerns grew about the scandal of cheap foreign labour replacing British workers to serve Scotland's green revolution.

The Scottish Trades Union Congress has condemned what it called the "broken promises" of the Scottish Government's green jobs revolution.

READ MORE: Ministers halt 'scandal' of Scots wind farm foreign labour

Over ten years ago the Scottish Government were championing the desire to be the green energy capital of Europe with around 28,000 jobs in offshore wind alone.

The Herald on Sunday revealed how British based workers planned a mutiny as protests erupted over cheap foreign labour replacing them.

It was made aware of UK-based staff having contracts terminated following the extension of the Offshore Wind Workers Concession (OWWC) rules which allows the employment of cheaper foreign nationals on offshore wind projects.

After former justice secretary now East Lothian MP and Alba Party deputy leader Kenny MacAskill led a fight to halt the foreign worker concessions - the UK Government finally closed the scheme last year.

Analysis carried out by the Office for National Statistics shows that turnover, the total income generated by offshore wind companies, had risen by £1.673bn (66%) in a year to £4.206bn for offshore wind and £1.812bn (82%) to £4.009bn for onshore. But the number of jobs fell by 3% for offshore and by 400 (11%) for onshore.

The details have prompted outrage, with the STUC calling out the "cash grab for corporations".

The STUC said that it highlights the "urgent need" for an industrial strategy to bring an immediate end to the Scottish Government’s "total reliance" on corporate control of Scotland’s energy to rescue any chance of a just transition for workers and communities across the country.

Scottish Renewables, the trade body, said a recent report authored by itself and the Fraser of Allander Institute showed Scotland’s renewable energy industry and its supply chain supported more than 42,000 jobs and over £10.1 billion of output in 2021.

It questioned the ONS analysis saying that there was "considerable uncertainty in its estimates".

Last month a Highland carbon fibre manufacturer axed up to 80 jobs with one leading union claiming the redundancies showed how much renewable energy drive in Scotland has stalled.

SGL Carbon said a decline in demand for the material used in making wind turbines by a third had forced it to shut down several production lines at its Muir of Ord site, west of Inverness.

In 2010, a Scottish Government report suggested the offshore wind sector alone could offer the potential for 28,000 direct jobs.

Twelve years ago, the potential wind and marine energy power in the Pentland Firth - where the north-east Atlantic meets the North Sea – led the then First Minister Alex Salmond to dub it the "Saudi Arabia of Renewables" with Scottish firm BiFab at the time making turbines for offshore wind farms.

In November, 2010, Mr Salmond, first announced a £70m investment fund to finance the offshore wind sector.

He said by 2020, 28,000 jobs could be created directly servicing domestic and worldwide offshore wind markets and add £7.1 billion in value to Scotland's economy.

Opening the Scottish Low Carbon Investment conference in Edinburgh, he urged private finance leaders to seize the multi-billion pound opportunities arising from the renewable and low carbon technology revolution.

The STUC has pointed to situations across the energy sector in Scotland where workers face the reality of "broken promises on green jobs and just transition", with jobs threatened and barriers faced for those in high carbon industries.

It says that it highlights the importance of building a renewables manufacturing base to ensure the "greatest possible employment and economic benefit domestically" from increases in renewable energy generation, particularly offshore wind.

They said the trajectory of employment in relation to turnover seen in offshore wind in particular is the consequence of "years of inadequate planning and investment into manufacturing and fabrication capacity across Scotland".

By failing to invest in domestic supply chains for these components and setting lax conditions on companies to use local supply chains, the bulk of investment in offshore wind farms is sent overseas as components are imported, the union group said.

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said: "It confirms what workers in the energy sector are seeing on the ground. The wind turbines people see across Scotland’s land and seas are generating more cash for corporations than jobs for our communities.

“The approach of the Scottish and UK Government of relying entirely on private companies to deliver jobs across our communities has failed repeatedly. Multinational companies have taken the control, and the wealth, of Scotland’s renewable resources for their own benefit. Despite having some of the highest levels of wind generation in the world, Scotland still relies on imports from overseas.

“With their investment programmes, the United States and the EU are acting seriously, while we risk falling even further behind. The big talk of green jobs must be matched by big action to rescue the government's credibility. Trade unions across Scotland are fighting with their members for a just transition, they need politicians who are serious about supporting them to secure the future of their livelihoods, instead of the shareholders of multinational companies.”

Another union source said that the decline in jobs shown was a "disgrace" after there has been much campaigning to ensure Scotland does not lose out in terms of green jobs.

The controversial Offshore Wind Workers Concession (OWWC) which allows the employment of cheaper foreign nationals on wind projects closed at the end of April.

Unions had been fighting the OWWC which allows companies to skip the usual post-Brexit immigration restrictions and employ foreign nationals to join vessels engaged in the construction and maintenance of offshore wind farms.

It has previously been revealed that foreign governments including China and overseas firms with interests in Scotland’s offshore wind farm revolution were enjoying more than £200m in annual profits.

Ministers been under fire for failing to properly cash in on seven farms that were operating and three major schemes that are in advanced stages of development which together according to energy firms will have 5GW of installed capacity - enough to power double the 2.7m homes in Scotland.

There has been concern that governments in China and the United Arab Emirates, which have presided over human rights concerns, are among the beneficiaries of Scotland’s green revolution.

The array of state government-controlled firms that are making millions from having a key stake in Scotland’s collection of offshore wind farms also include France, Norway, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland. The Scottish Government has no stake in any company reaping the green rewards, even though it is in the nation's waters that the farms are being constructed.

The Scottish Government has been criticised for its failure to set up a publicly-owned energy company saying it did not have the powers - while Wales is developing a similar plan.

Campaigners have long called for the establishment of a state-owned company which would have owned energy resources, to provide secure, reliable and low-cost retail energy to households and to ensure there were renewable energy supply chain and manufacturing jobs for Scotland.

It is felt by some that the failure to create a state-owned energy company has meant that the nation has lost its grip of the profits of Scotland's green revolution.

A Scottish Renewables spokesman said: “While our members continue to focus on delivering the projects we will need to meet our climate ambitions, as an industry we want to clearly demonstrate how we are benefiting not only Scotland’s but the UK’s economies as we transition to a net-zero future.

“To do this we urgently need much more robust data collection to understand how the renewable energy industry is performing and evolving across the UK.

“The UK and Scottish Governments urgently need to enable better data to be collected on the renewable energy sector that will support transparency and accountability as our industry moves towards reaching its economic and environmental targets as part of the energy transition.”

Energy minister Gillian Martin said: “It is widely accepted that offshore wind represents a significant opportunity to create thousands of good Scottish green jobs – independent sources have consistently ranked Scotland as the best performing UK region for green job creation. This survey is based on a limited sample and the results are subject to a high degree of uncertainty and year-on-year unpredictability.

“We want to ensure a just transition that takes our existing skilled workforce and supply chain with us, which is why we are investing up to £500 million to anchor our offshore wind supply-chain in Scotland, acting as a catalyst for further private sector investment to ensure the Scottish workforce, businesses and communities all benefit from the offshore renewables revolution.”