Exclusive: Fears over £60m wind turbines jobs boost for region

Whitehall officials are keeping the fund – announced by Labour in last year's Budget – under review and are considering whether it is affordable as they seek to tackle the massive Budget deficit.

Officials in the region are hoping the money – which would help pay for infrastructure improvements needed to attract private manufacturers who could create up 10,000 jobs – could help the Humber become the major centre for building thousands of turbines needed for offshore wind farms initially in the North Sea.

But the failure of Ministers to confirm they will honour the fund has sparked concern that a major opportunity to create green jobs and support British manufacturing may be thrown away.

Nick Pontone, policy director at Yorkshire and Humber Chambers of Commerce, said: "Our ports are competing with others in the UK and abroad to manufacture and service offshore sites, and Government support is an important factor in unlocking this investment for Yorkshire and the Humber. We've got a great business case and hope this scheme will survive the cuts.

"We appreciate the Government has to make tough decisions on spending but it's sending an inconsistent message by saying it wants to rebalance the economy and then reversing some of the practical measures that could achieve this objective.

"The range of transport, infrastructure and industrial investments they scrapped or reviewed last week are part of the solution to put the economy back on the right course, not part of the problem."

Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, MP for Doncaster North, said: "If this did not go ahead it would be a terrible example of short termism and failing to understand that in order to reduce the deficit you've got to have plan for where the growth in the economy is going to come from."

News of the review into the fund comes just days after more than 150m of projects in the region were either cancelled or put on hold, including an 80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters, as Ministers accuse Labour of wielding a pre-election chequebook without having the money to pay for their pledges.

Tomorrow Chancellor George Osborne will present his emergency Budget which is expected to include more tough measures, such as cutting tax credits for the middle classes, while a wave of transport schemes across the region also have the axe hovering over them.

Despite the need to tackle the Budget deficit – still projected to top 150bn this year – the ports fund was seen as necessary to finance infrastructure work necessary to attract multinational companies who would otherwise set up in other European countries.

Siemens and GE are among the major companies considering building factories on the east coast and the previous Government said it expected 70,000 new jobs to be created from this industry by 2020.

The Yorkshire Post's Powering Yorkshire's Future campaign is calling on the Government, planners and private enterprise to encourage turbine manufacturers to base themselves on the banks of the Humber.