Sir Tom Hunter and Lord Willie Haughey have welcomed the news that plans for the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport (ICFGF) are moving closer to fruition.
ICFGF has revealed more than £3 billion of new investment could be attracted due to its green freeport status fulfilling the region’s potential to become the largest hub in Europe for the development of offshore wind turbines and associated renewable energy technologies.
Speaking on the Go Radio Business Show, Sir Tom said: “Good old Roy MacGregor, chairman of Global Energy Group, which owns the Port of Nigg on the Firth and is a member of Opportunity Cromarty Firth, is forecasting up to 10,000 new jobs and £3 billion worth of investment could be created.
“These figures come from an outline business case on the face of it. This is great news, but are these ‘big’ projections? Do we think this is actually possible?”
Lord Haughey cautioned: “Well, it’s like any other business plan – and I must have read more than 10,000 business plans in my business life – and not one of them did what it said it would do. It either did better or did worse. However I think up in Inverness and Cromarty they’ve a real chance.
“It needs decisive leadership, of course. It needs people who really understand what they’re doing. It needs a wee bit of luck . . . and I certainly wish them the best of luck!”
Sir Tom noted this was a particular business sector and geographical area where Scotland has been regarded for some time as having much to offer in the renewables space.
“That territory up there is absolutely first class for wind turbines and even for solar,” he said, “and that’s just on the good days, but definitely for tidal energy also. Obviously, you have clever people up there too. You’ve Ian Woods, you’ve Roy MacGregor, people who understand they can help us on that transition from the activities in the North Sea with oil and gas to the new way of delivering on renewable energy.
“However, I think the one thing that’s interesting here in terms of forward planning: if you honestly believe that this is going to create 10,000 new jobs, where is the plan right now for all the new housing?”
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