'˜We need reassurance on green energy jobs'

Cleethorpes MP Martin Vickers has voiced concerns that the south bank of the Humber won’t get the thousands of long-term jobs which were hoped for from the massive wind farms to be constructed off the East Coast.

He said progress had been slow following a memorandum of understanding signed last year by Dong and Able UK over a site Able wants to develop as a marine energy park at North Killingholme.

Mr Vickers, who was due to raise the issue in a debate in Westminster this evening, said: “The Siemens investment (in the Hull blade factory) is good, it benefits the estuary as a whole but promises were made about developments on the south bank in my constituency and I just want to see that come to fruition.”

He added: “The danger is we are going to end up as assembling things that are manufactured elsewhere.”

Mr Vickers said both local and national Government had been supportive of green energy with Able benefitting from a £15m grant to develop infrastructure and Dong from an “extremely generous” guaranteed strike price for electricity till 2025.

Grimsby would develop as a further as a centre for operations and maintenance. Mr Vickers said: “It is beneficial but at an enormous price if that’s what we end up with compared with the hopes and aspirations.

“People and the Government would rightly be very angry about the failure of companies to invest when they are in receipt of a very good deal from the Government in terms of these contracts.”

Dong Energy, which last week committed to the 1.2 gigawatt Hornsea One project, said there had been regular dialogue with DECC about jobs and growth on the Humber “including the Able Marine Energy Park amongst other opportunities”.

They added: “We are absolutely committed to the Humber region, and we expect to invest £6bn in the area by 2019. We will also support an average of 1,600 construction jobs per year in the Humber from 2015 to 2020”.

The Government said Hornsea One would bring more jobs, skills and growth to the region.