Authority confident of landing flagship green energy project

The upbeat message from Hull Council bosses comes a day after the Government indicated its support for an even bigger project Able UK’s £450 million marine energy park that could create 4,000 jobs on the south bank of the estuary at Killingholme.

Siemens is working with the council and Associated British Ports to develop the £210m Green Port Hull facility, which would manufacture and assemble components for offshore wind turbines, creating 700 engineering jobs and potentially supporting thousands of others in the supply chain and related industries.

Asked how the Siemens project was developing, the council said in a statement: “We do continue to work closely with all of the partners involved in the development to bring the scheme closer to reality and very good progress is being made.”

The authority said it was continuing to prepare the ground to support green energy investment in the region, with a particular focus on Siemens.

Officials said they were working with partners at East Riding Council using Regional Growth Funding to develop the Paull site, which is part of the Humber Enterprise Zone, to attract firms linked to the Green Port Hull development.

The statement added: “Work also continues in the background on our land offer linked to enterprise zones, as well as skills and training and business support, should an investment be made in the city.”

Latest figures from the council yesterday showed that more than 100 apprentices had been taken on by companies in the first year of the Green Port Growth Progamme’s employment and skills initiative, which is aimed at raising skills and capacity in the engineering sector.

The programme, which is also supported by the Regional Growth Fund and is a partnership with East Riding Council, offers wage subsidies to East Yorkshire firms to encourage them to take on engineering apprentices.

The scheme aims to deliver up to 850 engineering apprenticeships between 2012 and 2018.

The programme has now been extended to offer subsidies to firms to employ people who have been out of work for more than six months.

This will be available to businesses in the engineering and maritime sectors within the offshore wind supply chain and will offer a 20 per cent, 12-month wage subsidy, as well as funding for training.

Mark Jones, Hull Council’s city economic development and regeneration manager, said: “Hopefully, this move will help to include more unemployed people in the programme and will help a key sector in this area to develop.”

In a separate initiative, plans were unveiled in June to develop a multi-million-pound renewables training centre to bridge a skills gap across the Humber region.

Transport Minister Norman Baker said on Wednesday he was “minded to approve” plans for Able UK’s marine energy park, but wanted more information on measures to mitigate the loss of mudflats which are an important feeding ground for black-tailed godwits and other wading birds.

Coun Steven Bayes, city council cabinet member with lead responsibility for Green Port, said he was encouraged by the announcement.

“The two things are separate but it’s a shot in the arm. What we are trying to do is get the Humber to be a renewables centre and any development on the estuary is a good thing for employment and the wealth of the area.”