Labour says its plans for 37 new offshore wind farms will create 11,000 new jobs in Yorkshire and the Humber

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey said there would be a 51 per cent public stake in the farms, with profits invested into coastal communities.

The cost of offshore wind tumbled below £40 per megawatt hour of electricity last week, but Labour said deployment was too slow and that jobs and revenue were being taken outside the UK.

Instead, under Labour’s plans unveiled today, a people’s power fund would be created with 20 per cent of the profits from the publicly owned stake, which would invest between £600m to £1,020m each year into infrastructure in “held-back” coastal communities.

The rest of the public profits would be reinvested into new renewables, improvements to the energy system and climate transition. A people’s power plan would deliver 52 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 – equivalent to 38 coal power stations - and the new wind farms would provide electricity for 57 million households, Labour said.

The party said the proposals would create at least 67,000 new jobs in the offshore wind sector – including 11,124 skilled and unionised roles in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Ms Long Bailey said: “Britain has long benefited from its windy shores, with the wind playing an essential role in our history as a seafaring nation. Our wind will soon become our largest energy source.

“While UK’s offshore wind industry is still young, the UK has the opportunity to avoid replicating Britain’s experience with North Sea Oil and instead to learn from countries such as Norway and Sweden by owning what is already ours. By taking a stake in offshore wind, we can collectively benefit from the profits, investing them back into our held back coastal communities.

"That wind will turn into harbour fronts and libraries.”

On Saturday, The Yorkshire Post reported that Yorkshire is set to be “one of the biggest winners” in the country as offshore wind gears up to power more than six million more homes.

Four of the latest projects to get the green light are on Dogger Bank, 80 miles off the East Coast, and should support jobs in the ports of Hull and Grimsby, which are hubs for the burgeoning industry, as well as powering nearly six million homes.

Around 3,000 people are already employed in the region in offshore wind, directly and indirectly.